IN  MEMORIAM 
Isaac   Flagg, 1843-1931 


ELY  LECTURES 


THE  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE  NINETEENTH 
CENTURY.  By  Rev.  Albert  Barnes,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  POSITIVISM.  By  Rev.  James  McCosh, 
D.D.,  LL.D. 

COMPARATIVE  EVIDENCES  OF  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTI- 
ANITY. By  Rev.  A.  P.  Peabody,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTIANITY  INDICATED  BY 
ITS  HISTORICAL  EFFECTS.  By  Rev.  Richard  S.  Storrs, 
D.D.,  LL.D 

PHILOSOPHY  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  By  Professor  George  S. 
Morris,  Ph.D. 

THE  MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  THE  GOSPELS.  By 
Professor  A.  W.  Bruce,  D.D. 

THE  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE.  By  Rev. 
Lewis  F.  Stearns,  D.D. 

ORIENTAL  RELIGIONS  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  By  Rev.  Frank 
F.  Ellinwood,  D.D. 

THE  BIBLE  AND   ISLAM.    By  Rev.  Henry  Preserved  Smith,  D.D. 

THE  SOCIAL  MEANING  OF  MODERN  RELIGIOUS  MOVE- 
MENTS IN  ENGLAND.  By  Thomas  C.  Hall,  D.D. 


SOCIAL  .AND   RELIGIOUS 
MOVEMENTS  IN   ENGLAND 


THE   SOCIAL  MEANING   OF  MODERN 
RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS   IN    ENGLAND 


BEING  THE   ELY  LECTURES  FOR 
1899 


BY 

THOMAS    C.    HALL,    D.D 

•   ! 


NEW   YORK 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1900 


COPYRIGHT,  1900,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


^^W 


TROW  DIRECTORY 

PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


\ 


tro 

MY  DEAR  WIFE 

WHOSE  LOVING  CARE  ALONE,  UNDER  A  HEAVENLY 
FATHER'S  BLESSING,  MADE  THE  PREPARATION  OF 
THESE  LECTURES  DURING  RECOVERY  FROM  A  LONG 
ILLNESS  POSSIBLE;  AND  WHOSE  KINDLY  CRITICISM 
HAS  BEEN  INSPIRATION  AND  CONSTANT  HELP, 
THIS  VOLUME  IS  MOST  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 


M232373 


THE  ELY  FOUNDATION 

THE  lectures  contained  in  this  volume  were 
delivered  to  the  students  of  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1899,  as  one 
of  the  courses  established  in  the  Seminary  by 
Mr.  Zebulon  Stiles  Ely,  in  the  following  terms : 

' '  The  undersigned  gives  the  sum  of  ten  thousand 
dollars  to  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  of  the  City 
of  New  York  to  found  a  lectureship  in  the  same,  the 
title  of  which  shall  be  The  Elias  P.  Ely  Lectures  on 
the  Evidences  of  Christianity. 

' '  The  course  of  lectures  given  on  this  Foundation 
is  to  comprise  any  topics  serving  to  establish  the 
proposition  that  Christianity  is  a  religion  from  God, 
or  that  it  is  the  perfect  and  final  form  of  religion  for 
man. 

"  Among  the  subjects  discussed  may  be  :  The  Nat- 
ure and  Need  of  a  Revelation  ;  The  Character  and 
Influence  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles ;  The  Authen- 
ticity and  Credibility  of  the  Scriptures,  Miracles,  and 
Prophecy  ;  The  Diffusion  and  Benefits  of  Christian- 
ity, and  The  Philosophy  of  Religion  in  its  Relations 
to  the  Christian  System. 

' '  Upon  one  or  more  of  such  subjects  a  course  of 
public  lectures  shall  be  given,  at  least  once  in  two  or 
three  years.  The  appointment  of  the  lecturers  is  to 
be  by  the  concurrent  action  of  the  Faculty  and  Direc- 
tors of  said  Seminary  and  the  undersigned,  and  it 
shall  ordinarily  be  made  two  years  in  advance." 


PREFACE 

IN  the  first  years  of  my  ministerial  activity 
I  became  interested  in  the  revival  movement 
that  has  left  such  deep  marks  upon  our  Amer- 
ican Western  life.  I  sought  the  meaning  of  the 
movement,  and  studied  its  history,  not  from  in- 
tellectual curiosity,  but  asking  constantly  the 
question,  Why  cannot  the  same  zeal  be  awakened 
in  our  day  ?  This  led  me  to  study  the  move- 
ment in  its  English  origin.  Soon  it  became 
apparent  to  me  that  the  power  of  the  movement 
was  not  in  its  theology.  I  sought  it  in  its  ritual ; 
nor  was  the  secret  there.  New  forms  of  organ- 
ization sprang  then  into  being,  and  the  thought 
was  natural  that  its  power  was  here.  Yet  it 
needed  but  little  study  to  compel  the  surrender 
of  this  hypothesis.  Deeper  than  its  theology, 
more  lasting  than  its  ritual,  more  profound  than 
its  organizations,  moved  the  spirit  that  gave  the! 
English-speaking  race  new  power  and  quick- 
ened life.  Slowly  I  learned  to  see  in  it  the 
advance  of  God's  self-revelation  to  men  in  the 
associated  life  of  men.  Not  in  mystic  con- 


xii  PREFACE 

templation  do  men  come  closest  to  the  life  of 
/  God,  but  in  the  changing  activity  of  the  race's 
history — the  open  page  upon  which  God  is  writ- 
ing, perhaps  for  the  greater  universe  to  read, 
the  strange  and  wonderful  story  of  man's  re- 
demption. More  and  more  I  began  to  feel  that 
the  movement  was  but  the  prelude  to  a  more 
splendid  symphony  of  divine  praise,  in  which 
the  concerted  voices  of  harmonized  human  life 
will  vie  with  the  uplifted  songs  of  the  angels  in 
ascribing  glory  and  honor  and  power  to  Him 
that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  who  has  called  light 
out  of  darkness,  and  doeth  all  things  well. 


CONTENTS 


LECTURE  I 

INTRODUCTION— THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  METHODISM 

Definitions,  1;  Our  limits,  3;  Field  preaching  in  1739  and 
Oxford  reaction,  1848,  4;  Factors  at  work,  9;  Relig- 
ious movement  of  1702  and  Tory  reaction,  1710,  13; 
Towndshend  and  Walpole,  1714-1742,  19 ;  The  Nonju- 
rors,  22 ;  The  Whigs  and  the  Church,  24;  The  growth  of 
towns,  26 ;  Religious  decline  of  the  reigns  of  George  I. 
and  II.,  29;  The  Deist  controversy,  30;  The  gradual 
awakening,  32 ;  Oxford  in  1730,  33 ;  The  beginning  of 
the  dawn,  37. 


LECTURE  II 

THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT       ^ 

William  Law's  u  Serious  Call,"  40;  Methodist  group  of 
1729,  43;  Experiences  of  Wesley,  44;  Theological  dis- 
pute really  ethical,  49 ;  The  movement  not  merely  new 
organization,  52;  Real  depth  of  movement,  56;  The 
social  character  illustrated,  58  ;  Democracy  of  the  move- 
ment, 62;  Educational  value  of  the  Chapel,  65;  The 
link  with  the  Establishment,  68;  The  great  social  im- 
portance of  the  awakening  at  a  time  of  change,  74. 


xiv  CONTENTS 

LECTURE    III 
ENGLAND'S  CONDITION  AND  THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY 

V""The  Industrial  awakening,  76;  Political  changes  under  Pitt, 
77 ;  Beginnings  of  democracy,  78 ;  The  French  Revo- 
lution, 79 ;  Open-air  meetings  and  political  life,  83 ; 
Seriousness  in  politics,  84 ;  Pitt  vs.  Fox,  85 ;  England's 
attitude  toward  France,  87;  The  "lay  "  element  and  its 
significance,  88;  Rise  of  the  Evangelical  party,  94; 
Characteristics,  95;  Advantages  of  its  triumph  and  its 
relation  to  Establishment,  97. 

LECTURE   IV 

THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM 

*• 

Effect  on  English  manners,  107 ;  Formal  entrance  into  politi- 
cal life,  111;  East  Indian  question,  113;  Slavery  move- 
ment, 115 ;  Development  of  the  political  conscience,  119  f 
Evangelical  circles,  120 ;  The  Manchester  school  and  the 
party,  125 ;  Factory  Acts  Reform  movement,  128 ;  More 
factory  agitation,  129 ;  Leadership  of  Lord  Ashley,  131 ; 
Prison  reform,  132 ;  Limitations  of  Evangelicalism,  134.  , 


LECTURE  V 

RADICALISM  AND  REFORM 

Puritan  origin  for  Radical  religious  thought,  143 ;  Bentham, 
144;  John  Stuart  Mill  and  religious  movement,  146; 
Priestly  and  his  work,  151 ;  Owen,  155 ;  The  working  class 
and  the  latter-day  Evangelicalism,  161 ;  Workingmen  and 
Radicalism,  162 ;  Trade  Unions,  167 ;  Methodism  sur- 
vival in  the  country,  168 ;  Neglects  of  organized  Chris- 
tianity, 169 ;  Rise  of  Chartism,  172 ;  Effects  of  its  fail- 
ures, 174. 


CONTENTS  XV 

LECTURE  VI 

THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT 

Social  strain  of  1830-1848,  175 ;  Intellectual  awakening,  176 ; 
Coleridge,  1772-1834, 176;  Wordsworth,  1780-1850, 176; 
Unreflecting  character  of  the  movement  up  to  1830, 
178 ;  The  intellectual  revolt,  182 ;  Services  of  Maurice, 
182 ;  Workingmen's  colleges,  183 ;  Maurice  and  Chart- 
ism, 184;  Tennyson's  message,  190;  Carlyle's  relation 
to  the  u  Broad  "  movement,  191 ;  Relation  to  Manchester 
thought,  194;  Ruskin's  place,  195;  The  socialism  of 
Morris,  195;  Toynbee  Hall,  197;  Chastened  discontent 
of  England,  199;  Limitations  of  the  "Broad"  move- 
ment, 202;  The  twofold  protest,  203;  Its  Protestant 
character,  206. 

LECTURE  VII 

THE   HIGH   CHURCH  REACTION 

The  Puritan  and  Cavalier  in  history,  209;  Factors  in  the 
High  Church  reaction,  210;  Newman's  leadership,  217; 
The  reactionary  social  significance,  219 ;  Gladstone  and 
the  Tory  reaction,  223;  Effect  of  reaction  on  Oxford, 
224;  Effect  upon  political  parties,  226;  The  historic 
claims  of  High  Churchism,  227 ;  The  two  conceptions  in 
the  Church,  228;  Ward's  "Ideal  Church,"  231;  Social 
significance  of  reaction,  232 ;  Limitations,  236 ;  Author- 
ity as  external,  237 ;  Protestantism  vs.  Catholicism,  241 ; 
The  extremes  of  both,  242. 

LECTURE  VIII 

THE   SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE    IN  GENERAL — A  REVIEW 

Puritan  origin  of  all  phases,  246;  The  real  services,  249; 
Not  theological  nor  philosophical  nor  ecclesiastical,  but 
social,  256 ;  Temporary  and  permanent  elements,  256 ; 
Evolution  of  movement  for  social  service,  263  ;  Failures 
of  all  phases  and  their  successes,  273 ;  Conclusion,  277. 


THE   SOCIAL    MEANING    OF   MODERN 

RELIGIOUS    MOVEMENTS    IN 

ENGLAND 

LECTURE  I. 

INTRODUCTORY 

To  give  our  definitions  at  the  outset  may  save 
us  future  misunderstandings.  By  "social"  is 
meant  the  organized  life  of  the  community  as 
distinguished  from  the  separate  lives  of  the  in- 
dividuals of  which  it  is  composed.  No  thought- 
ful man  dwells  upon  his  individual  liberty  with- 
out remembering  how  limited  on  every  hand 
that  sphere  must  be.  We  are  born  into  a  physi- 
cal life  without  any  exercise  of  our  volition. 
"We  live  under  the  sway  of  inherited  memories, 
powerful  as  the  most  fundamental  instincts 
amid  environments  we  did  nothing  to  create 
heirs  to  a  history  with  which  we  had  nothi 
to  do ;  the  creatures  of  imaginations  whose 
springs  are  in  far  distant  seons.  We  are  tossed 
about  amid  loves  and  hates,  fears  and  friend- 

1 


'2f  ''  £JUf££Z8ff  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

sliips,  whose  very  origin  baffles  our  curiosity. 
The  strongest  passions  about  us  spring  from  a 
life  long  passed  away,  and  the  traditions  that 
most  influence  us  are,  from  our  view-point,  things 
of  chance.  The  very  greatness  of  an  individual- 
ity is  that  it  stands  forth  as  a  type  of  such  an 
organized  life  or  nation. 

The  beginning  of  this  century  saw  individu- 
ality often  emphasized  extremely,  but  it  also 
saw  great  social  forces  started  whose  end  is  not 
yet.  We  look  about  in  vain  on  the  horizon 
where  sets  the  sun  of  the  nineteenth  century 
for  men  to  compare  with  those  just  past  away, 
and  who  have  made  the  century  great.  Lincoln, 
Bismarck,  and  Gladstone  were  fitting  successors 
to  WashiDgton,  Napoleon,  and  Pitt.  But  even 
if  they  left  no  successors  among  us,  yet  the  or- 
ganized forces  with  which  such  names  are  iden- 
tified have  not  passed  away.  The  closing  years 
of  the  century  exhibit  combinations  of  power, 
the  like  of  which  the  world's  history  has  never 
yet  seen.  The  German  army  and  German  so- 
cial democracy;  the  political  Republic  and  the 
huge  international  commercial  syndicates;  the 
ever-growing  unions  of  laboring  men  and  the 
spreading  out  of  organized  transportation,  are 
often  emphasized  in  their  contrasts  and  their 
superficial  antagonisms.  They  are  the  signs  of 
the  coming  to  full  self -consciousness  of  factors 


,  INTRODUOTORT  3 

the  most  powerful  in  history.  Man  is  social. 
He  is  bound  to  the  past,  to  his  fellows  of  the 
present,  and  to  the  children  of  that  golden 
future  which  Christianity  substitutes  for  the 
golden  age  of  long  ago.  When  we  are  asked  to 
examine  any  great  movement  no  inquiry  should 
be  more  earnestly  pressed  than  its  significance 
for  this  organized  communal  life  which  is  more 
than  any  individual  or  the  sum  of  all  living  in- 
dividuals. This  social  organized  life  conserves 
the  traditions  of  the  ages,  gives  the  present  its 
deepest  meaning,  and  is  the  womb  out  of  which 
springs  the  future. 

The  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  saw 
a  movement  started  in  England,  which  is  loose- 
ly called  the  evangelical  revival.  As,  however, 
the  evangelical  party  was  only  one  sign  of  a  far 
larger  awakening,  it  is  well  to  speak  of  it  by 
some  term  that  will  include  elements  not  in  any 
sense  evangelical,  although  deeply  religious.  . 

This  religious  awakening  had  profound  socia  / 
meaning,  that  is  to  say,  its  significance  for  th< 
communal  life  far  transcended  the  immediate 
effect  upon  the  thousands  of   individual  liven 
moved   by  it.      The    organized   communal  lifo 
came  under  its   power   and  was  quickened  by 
its  inspiration.    It  is  this  influence  we  are  asked 
to  trace  and  measure  as  we  seek  to  follow  its 
effects  upon  English  life  in  particular. 


4         ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

It  would  be  interesting  to  go  farther;  to 
study  the  awakening  in  America,  and  the 
changes  in  Scotland,  that  can  be  immediately 
traced  to  connections  with  the  new  religious  in- 
terest in  England.  But  our  scope  is  already 
too  wide,  and  the  leading  principles  remain  the 
same,  although  the  differences  in  the  historical 
development  might  here  and  there  render  them 
a  little  more  obscure. 

The  movement  has  been  generally  associated 
with  the  lives  and  activities  of  Whitefield  and 
the  Wesleys.  Dates  are  even  assigned  for  its 
beginning,  as  when  Whitefield  preached  first  in 
the  open  air  to  the  neglected  colliers  of  Kings- 
wood  near  Bristol  in  1739,  or  when  Wesley  first 
began  his  work  at  the  Foundry  a  little  later. 

Yet  the  springs  of  the  movement  go  very  far 
back  in  English  history.  The  countless  relig- 
ious factors  that  give  English  religious  life  its 
strong  local  color  may  all  be  traced  as  at  work 
upon  it.  The  connection,  for  instance,  between 
it  and  early  Puritanism  in  nearly  all  its  phases 
is  too  plain  to  be  ignored.  Nor  is  it  right  to 
pass  over  the  influence  upon  it  of  the  German 
Moravian  Church,  exercised  as  it  was  in  a  most 
critical  period  and  deeply  leaving  on  it  an  im- 
press for  good. 

So  it  would  be  wholly  false  to  the  facts  of  the 
case  to  treat  any  one  man  or  any  one  epoch  as 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

a  definite  starting-point.  Just  as  Zwingli,  Lu- 
ther, (Ecolampadius,  Calvin,  and  Erasmus  be- 
gan movements  really  independent  one  of  the 
other  and  different  in  kind,  so,  too,  the  religious 
movement  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  many 
men  as  its  founders  who  worked  independently 
and  on  different  lines. 

The  revival  of  spiritual  interest  touched  all 
classes,  but  in  different  ways  and  at  different 
times.  The  last  phase  which  we  will  attempt 
to  examine  will  be  the  Oxford  movement,  or 
Tractarian  stage  of  the  Evangelical  Revival. 
And  even  here  all  we  can  hope  to  do,  is  to  mark 
its  beginnings  and  its  final  great  disappoint- 
ment in  the  blow  it  sustained  by  the  defection 
of  so  many  of  its  leaders  to  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church.  So  that  the  movement,  taken  gen- 
erally, as  we  shall  examine  it,  covers  roughly 
about  five  generations  of  men,  or  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty  years.  At  the  same  time  it 
must  be  realized  that  history  is  not  broken  up 
into  sharply  divided  chapters.  Slowly  the  forces 
gathered  that  were  to  produce  such  great  results. 
Even  as  early  as  1702  there  was  some  promise  of 
a  new  religious  advance,  and  it  was  only  post- 
poned by  the  hostility  of  the  organized  Church. 

It  would  be  very  interesting  to  deal  with  the 
movement  as  an  historian  would  be  justified  in 
dealing,  for  example,  with  the  rise  of  Buddhism 


6          ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

in  India,  or  of  Mohametanism  in  Arabia,  seek- 
ing to  draw  no  inferences,  but  dealing  with 
them  as  purely  objective  phenomena,  to  be 
tested  by  purely  historical  measures.  Such  ob- 
jective, purely  historical  treatment  of  the  evan- 
gelical revival  is  lacking  and  would  be  most 
useful.  So  far  as  possible  these  pages  have 
been  based  upon  private  examination  carried 
out  in  this  spirit.  But  our  aim  will  be  not  so 
much  a  simple  setting  forth  of  the  historical 
circumstances  of  the  revival,  as  an  attempt  to 
gather  the  significance  of  the  movement,  and  to 
set  forth,  in  meagre  enough  outline,  some  of  its 
salient  features  as  connected  with  organized 
English  life. 

At  a  most  critical  time  in  the  race's  history 
we  find  a  great  social  upheaval  affecting  the 
foremost  nations  of  the  European  world.  In 
England  that  movement,  more  than  anywhere 
else,  was  directly  connected  in  time  with  a  great 
revived  interest  in  religion.  It  is  for  us  to 
trace  some  of  the  effects  of  this  union  in  time  of 
these  two  mighty  forces,  or  more  properly  the 
two  manifestations  of  the  one  great  force. 

Schleiermacher,  in  his  classic  definition  of 
"  piety,"  pronounces  it  neither  knowledge  nor 
activity  (Thuri),  but  a  direction  of  the  feeling  or 
the  immediate  consciousness,  and  the  content 
of  this  immediate  consciousness  in  the  sense  of 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

dependence  upon  God.*  Such  loving  depend- 
ence produces  its  proper  fruit  in  loving  rela- 
tions to  God's  world.  The  whole  being,  phys- 
ical, intellectual,  and  moral,  is  brought  into  new 
relations  both  to  God  and  His  universe  by  the 
life  of  piety.  Hence  there  can  be  only  one  true 
religion,  but  its  manifestations  will  be  as  numer- 
ous as  there  are  faulty  conceptions  of  these  re- 
lations. The  elements  of  true  religion  are  sim- 
ple. The  elements  that  enter  into  its  object- 
ive manifestations  are  as  complex  as  human 
life  in  all  its  strange  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
diversity.  Hence  Puritanism  in  its  historic  de- 
velopment expressed  itself  in  most  varied  and 
often  seemingly  contradictory  ways.  Leaders 
in  the  movement,  really  urged  on  by  the  same 
impulse,  failed  to  realize  the  truer  unity,  and 
vainly  sought  to  make  some  external  and  sec- 
ondary element  a  bond  where  in  fact  no  such 
bond  was  possible.  This  is  characteristic  of  all 
revived  religious  feeling.  It  makes  all  life 
more  intense.  The  longing  for  unity  is  born  of 
the  sense  of  unity  with  God  and  fervent  desire 
therefore  for  unity  with  all  God's  creatures. 
But  the  practical  effect  of  religious  intensity  has 
been  the  most  diverse  expressions,  and  seem- 
ingly a  widening  of  the  distances  between  men. 
The  revived  religious  feeling  known  as  the  Bef- 
*  Der  Christliche  Glaube,  Vol.  I.,  Sections  3  and  4. 


8          ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

ormation  broke  Christendom  into  a  hundred 
fragments,  and  destroyed  all  pretence  even  of 
Christian  uniformity.  The  same  thing  marked 
the  great  religious  movement  in  England.  With 
the  religious  quickening,  dissent  sprang  into 
new  life,  new  sects  arose ;  it  broke  the  quiet  of 
the  Establishment,  and  in  its  last  phase  now 
threatens  its  overthrow.  For  the  Oxford  move- 
ment has  already  made  divisions  in  its  uniform- 
ity which  no  episcopal  authority  has  been  able 
either  to  remove  or  to  conceal. 

This  religious  awakening  lias  been  too  often 
treated  as  the  work  of  individuals.  It  would 
be  as  near  the  facts  to  say  that  these  individ- 
uals were  the  work  of  the  awakening.  Great 
social  forces  find  their  expression  in  great  men 
and  remarkable  movements.  These  forces  make 
themselves  felt  long  before  the  leaders  come  on 
the  stage,  and  it  is  curious  to  observe  how 
blindly  leaders  often  launch  movements,  whose 
tendency  they  in  no  way  know,  whose  sweep 
they  in  no  way  measure.  Wesley  in  organizing 
his  class  meetings  never  intended  to  found  the 
Methodist  Church,  whose  foundation-stone  he 
then  laid.  The  well-nigh  inevitable  outcome  of 
the  Tractarian  movement  would  have  been  far- 
thest removed  from  the  mind  of  Pusey,  Hurrell, 
Froude,  and  the  saintly  Keble,  and  most  dis- 
tasteful to  them.  God  reveals  His  omnipotence 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

in  the  power  and  helplessness  of  the  men  He 
calls  on  the  stage  for  great  crises.  To  grasp 
therefore  the  character  of  the  evangelical  move- 
ment it  is  essential  that  we  exainine^as^  far  as 
possible^thejorces  plainly  at  work-ia  England, 
before  the  leaders  entered  upon  their  task,  that 
we  may  try  to  understand  their  labors  in  the 
light  of  England's  condition ;  for  only  then  can 
we  properly  examine  these  labors,  the  leaders, 
and  the  various  phases  of  the  movement  in 
which  they  played  a  part. 

To  analyze  the  factors  that  go  to  make  up  a 
single  life  is  a  task  so  complicated  that  the 
great  dramatist,  the  poet,  the  novelist,  and  the 
biographer  find  all  their  powers  taxed  to  give 
even  a  relatively  accurate  picture.  How,  then, 
can  it  be  hoped  to  do  more  than  sketch,  in  the 
broadest  way,  some  of  the  features  of  a  national 
life  which  is  the  sum  and  more  than  the  sum  of 
thousands  of  individual  lives.  Yet  to  such  a 
task  we  must  address  ourselves,  even  if  we  can 
hope  to  do  no  more  than  form  a  relatively  ac- 
curate picture  of  the  conditions  then  existing. 

England  and  Wales  in  1703,  when  John 
"Wesley  was  born,  had  a  population  of  about  six 
millions.  This  is  only  an  estimate,  as  no  census 
was  taken  until  1801,  and  the  estimate  rests  on 
somewhat  doubtful  calculations  on  the  basis  of 
the  number  of  hearthstones  taxed  in  the  king- 


10       ENGLISH  RELIGIO  US  MO  VEMENTS 

dom.*  The  tours  of  Defoe  and  Arthur  Young 
furnish  us  some  interesting  details,  and  particu- 
larly can  we  note  the  progress  made  between 
1728  and  1748,  by  comparing  the  editions  of 
Defoe,  the  last  edition  having  been  edited  by 
Richardson.  The  new  school  of  English  novels, 
which  Defoe  in  his  mature  years  (he  was  then 
fifty-nine)  founded,  gives  us  graphic  and  amus- 
ing pictures  of  life  at  that  time.  Yet  with  all 
such  help  it  is  hard  to  realize  how  different  a 
land  the  England  of  1702-37  was  from  the  Eng- 
land of  to-day.  London  was  a  badly  lighted, 
ill-kept,  misgoverned  town.  Bound  about  it  lay 
heath,  common,  and  forest.  The  roads  leading 
to  it  were  abominable,  and  rendered  unsafe  day 
and  night  by  an  almost  unchecked  lawlessness ; 
for  the  hangings  that  took  place  with  frightful 
frequency  f  for  the  most  trivial  offences  failed 

*  Macpherson,  Vol.  II.,  page  634  of  his  Annals  says  :  "  4  It 
then  appeared,'  says  the  continuator  of  Rapin's  History  (Vol. 
III.,  page  952,  notes),  '  that  the  number  of  houses  in  England 
and  Wales,  soon  after  the  Restoration  (1688),  was  about  1,- 
230,000,  and  reckoning  six  persons  at  a  medium  to  each  house 
it  fixes  the  number  of  people  then  to  be  7,380,000."' 

D'Avenant  is  quoted  by  Macpherson,  however,  as  saying 
in  the  essay  On  Ways  and  Means  of  Supplying  the  War  that 
it  appeared  from  the  books  of  Hearth-money  that  there  were 
not  above  1,300,000  families  in  England,  and  allowing  six 
persons  to  a  house,  7,800,000  or  not  quite  8,000,000  was  then 
the  population.  On  page  134  of  Vol.  III.,  Macpherson  as- 
sumes this  last  figure,  8,000,000,  as  the  population  in  1726. 

f  According  to  Sir  Stephen  Jaunsson's  account  (see  Lecky, 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

in  any  marked  degree  to  suppress  the  violence 
that  made  all  travel  unsafe. 

Bristol  was  the  second  city  in  size  in  Eng- 
land, and  yet  the  road  connecting  it  with  Lon- 
don was  bad  in  the  extreme.  The  country 
people  were  densely  ignorant  and  grossly  su- 
perstitious. The  open  farming  system  pre- 
vailed, in  which  agrarian  communities  farmed 
in  common.  Enclosures  and  well-cared-for  es- 
tates hardly  existed  in  our  understanding  of  the 
terms.  Schools  were  few,  and  many  of  those 
that  did  exist  were  fearfully  defective.  Com- 
merce and  industry  were  in  their  infanc}r.  The 
darkest  cloud  of  stupid,  narrow  prejudices  lay 
like  a  crushing  weight  upon  the  ignorant  coun- 
try population.  The  sports  of  the  people  were 
savage  bull-fights,  dog-fights,  and  brutalizing 
exhibitions  in  the  county  rings.  The  Church 
possessed  political  power,  and  it  is  easy  to  un- 
der-estimate  her  influence  in  other  spheres,  but 
the  spiritual  guidance  she  gave  was  uncertain 
and  unsatisfactory.  The  life  of  the  time  seems 

History  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  Vol.  VI.,  page  249)  there 
were  hanged  at  the  Old  Bailey,  from  1749  to  1772,  678  persons 
of  1,121  who  were  condemned  to  death.  See  Howard  on 
Prisons,  and  Romilly's  Observations  on  the  Criminal  Law  of 
England.  In  1732  70  persons  were  hanged  at  the  Old  Bailey, 
and  as  late  as  1726,  a  murderess,  Katherine  Hayes,  was  burnt 
alive  at  the  stake.  See  also  Eomilly's  Observations  on 
Madarfs  Thoughts  on  Executive  Justice. 


12       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

to  have  been  extremely  narrow,  but  considering 
the  great  mass  of  dull  ignorance  it  was  along  its 
own  lines  exceedingly  intense.  When  we  read 
in  the  pages  of  the  history  of  England  that  "  all 
England  was  '  for  *  or  '  against '  this  measure,"  it 
it  is  needful  to  consider  all  such  expressions  in 
the  light  of  our  own  condition.  With  a  daily 
press,  and  but  a  small  percentage  of  illiteracy, 
those  of  us  who  take  active  interest  in  even  so 
pressing  a  question  as  war  or  peace,  is  small. 
What  must  have  been  the  proportion  of  Eng- 
land's ignorant  scattered  population  who  took 
more  than  a  passing  interest  in  the  questions 
that  we  deal  with  as  the  momentous  ones  of 
the  opening  years  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
How  many  are  we  to  suppose  of  England's  six 
or  seven  millions  knew  aught  of  the  "  balance 
of  power,"  for  which  William  was  piling  up  so 
huge  a  debt,  or  even  entered  very  actively  into 
the  question  of  the  succession  to  the  throne  of 
England  herself.  But  this  fact  of  but  a  small 
number  controlling  the  nation's  actions  induced 
intense  feeling  among  those  few.  And  the 
stormy  activities  of  these  contending  parties 
exhausted  and  strained  England  to  the  utmost. 
England's  destiny  in  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  was  in  the  hands  of  a  few  great 
reigning  families,  whose  self-interest,  family 
pride,  and  vaunting  ambitions  were  the  leading 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

factors  in  all  political  movements.  England 
was  London,  and  London  was  the  select  po- 
litical club  called  Westminster,  together  with 
the  court  and  a  few  fashionable  chop-houses. 
Public  opinion  was  in  the  hands  of  one  or  two 
who  commanded  large  followings  and  bid  them 
shout,  and  a  few  pamphleteers  who  wrote  viru- 
lent and  violent  articles  in  the  interests  of  those 
who  paid  them  the  most  or  made  themselves 
most  feared. 

The  fear  of  popery  under  King  James  had 
induced  many  to  come  together  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  old  Puritans  and  Dissenters  to  form 
circles  for  the  advancement  of  personal  piety. 
These  societies  were,  however,  in  the  English 
Church  and  favored  by  men  like  Beveridge. 
They  became  the  well-known  societies  for  the 
improvement  of  morals.  "  Such  an  evil  spirit," 
writes  Burnet,  "as  is  now  spread  among  the 
clergy,  would  be  a  sad  speculation  at  any  time, 
but  in  our  present  circumstances,  when  we  are 
near  so  great  a  crisis,  it  is  a  dreadful  thing. 
But  a  little  to  balance  this,  I  shall  give  an  ac- 
count of  more  promising  beginnings  and  ap- 
pearances which  though  they  are  of  an  older 
date,  yet  of  late  have  been  brought  into  a  more 
regulated  form.  In  King  James's  reign,  the  fear 
of  popery  was  so  strong,  as  well  as  just,  that 
many,  in  and  about  London,  began  to  meet 


14:       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

often  together,  both  for  devotion  and  for  their 
further  instruction.  Things  of  that  kind  had 
been  formerly  practised  only  among  the  Puri- 
tans and  the  Dissenters.  But  these  were  of  the 
Church,  and  came  to  their  ministers  to  be  as- 
sisted with  forms  of  prayer  and  other  direc- 
tions." *  And  in  1702  the  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation  of  the  Gospel  was  successfully  launched 
under  the  smiles  of  the  Queen.  There  is  no  say- 
ing what  might  have  been  the  outcome  of  this 
movement  in  reviving  Puritanism  and  giving 
English  life  during  Queen  Anne's  reign  a  differ- 
ent character  had  not  other  forces  been  in  con- 
stant play.  The  strong  Tory  reaction  that  set 
in  after  King  William's  death  linked  itself  to  the 
churchly  and  religious  feeling.  It  seems  like 
a  horrid  mockery  of  things  sacred  that  Boling- 
broke  and  Atterbury,  the  Queen's  chief  advisers, 
should  have  been  able  to  swing  the  religious 
sentiment  of  England  so  completely  over  to  the 
old  stand-point  of  intolerance  and  exclusiveness. 
Their  first  effort  was  a  failure,  when  the  Bill  for- 
bidding Occasional  Conformity — i.e.,  the  taking 
of  the  sacrament  by  nonconformists~in  an  Es- 
tablished Church  simply  to  qualify  them  for 
office — was  lost.  It  was  lost,  however,  only  be- 
cause the  Lords  and  Commons  could  not  agree 

*Burnet,  History  of  Our  Own  Times,  Vol.  II.,  p.  318. 
(Folio  Edition,  1734.) 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

upon  the  form  of  the  measure.  The  Whig 
Bishops,  it  is  refreshing  to  note,  withstood  the 
Tory  intolerance  of  the  lower  clergy.  The  fa- 
naticism rose  nevertheless  higher  and  higher. 
And  at  last,  when  an  empty-headed,  vain  man 
called  Sacheverell,  in  1710,  was  impeached  for 
language  seditious  in  the  extreme  formally  ut- 
tered at  St.  Paul's  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
Mayor,  the  Tory  fury  was  so  great  that,  though 
convicted,  his  sentence  was  merely  formal.  He 
had  happily  largely  broken  the  force  of  his  pop- 
ular position  by  explaining  his  words  in  an  ut- 
terly unnatural  sense.  But  the  whole  incident 
goes  to  show  how  strong  in  1710  was  the  old 
narrow  persecuting  intolerant  spirit  that  had  so 
often  split  England.  The  seeds  of  division 
were  there,  in  spite  of  1688  and  all  that  William 
Ill's  tolerance  and  good  sense  and  the  long 
Whig  supremacy  had  done.  Indeed  so  perilous 
was  the  position  of  Dissenters  that  in  the  year 
Anne  died,  and  while  she  was  quite  ill,  Brad- 
bury, the  famous  preacher  of  the  Fetter  Lane 
Independent  Church,  met  Bishop  Burnet  in 
Smithfield  and  explained  his  dejection  to  him 
by  recalling  the  memories  of  the  place,  and  ex- 
pressing a  fear  of  the  return  of  those  times. 
Burnet  told  him  of  the  Queen's  approaching 
death,  and  during  a  service  sent  word  to  Brad- 
bury of  the  event,  when  the  whole  congregation 


16       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

burst  into  praise  for  deliverance.  For  on  that 
very  day  the  infamous  Test  Act  was  to  have 
gone  into  effect,  by  which  Bolingbroke  hoped 
to  so  weaken  the  Whig  party  that  the  succession 
of  the  Pretender  would  be  assured. 

The  deliberate  political  prostitution  of  the 
Church  by  men  of  the  type  of  Bolingbroke  and 
Atterbury  wrought  out  its  inevitable  result  in 
the  weakening  of  its  spiritual  power,  and  the 
lowering  of  its  aims. 

Of  the  dissenters  at  this  time  it  is  exceedingly 
difficult  to  form  an  exact  estimate  either  of  their 
numerical  strength  or  relative  influence.  Many 
things  seem  to  have  weakened  them.  There 
came  the  natural  reaction  after  the  Restora- 
tion. Few  men  cherish  a  lost  cause,  or  one 
seemingly  lost.  Nor  did  the  Nonconformists 
escape  the  hardships  of  laws  enacted  against 
them  under  the  Stuarts.  The  number  also  of 
independent  yeomen  was  on  the  wane.  These 
had  always  supplied  a  large  body  of  indepen- 
dent Dissenters.  Immigration  to  new  worlds 
also  undoubtedly  weakened  Dissent  in  Eng- 
land. In  very  imperfect  returns  made  in  1689, 
the  number  was  placed  at  110,000  in  England 
and  "Wales.*  But,  as  the  population  is  here 
counted  at  2,600,000,  this  estimate  must  be  en- 
tirely false.  It  was  reported  to  William  III 

*  Skeat,  History  qf  Dissenters,  p.  151. 


INTRODUCTORY  17 

that  they  did  not  number  one  to  twenty-two  of 
the  inhabitants.  But  there  was  good  reason  for 
wishing  William  to  think  England  more  united 
than  it  really  was.*  A  party,  however,  that 
reckoned  among  the  members  Baxter,  Howe, 
Calamy,  Bunyan,  Matthew  Henry,  and  Defoe 
had  not  only  influence  but  must  have  had  con- 
siderable support  in  the  nation.  Between  1688 
and  1690  the  Quakers  alone  had  taken  out  li- 
censes for  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  tem- 
porary and  one  hundred  and  eight  permanent 
places  of  worship.  And  in  1715  and  1716  Neal 
claims  that  there  were  1,107  Dissenting  congre- 
gations in  England  and  forty-three  in  Wales. 
The  Presbyterians  numbered  about  as  many  as 
the  Independents  and  Baptists  together.  On 
the  whole  it  would  be  probably  about  fair  to 
suppose  that  the  avowed  Nonconformists,  in- 
cluding all  parties,  numbered  a  fifth  to  a  sixth 
part  of  England's  population  when  William  be- 
gan his  reign,  or  at  least  that  over  one  million 
were  Dissenters  before  his  reign  came  to  a  close. 
These  suffered  many  hardships.  They  were 
excluded  from  the  universities  ;  could  only  be 
married  by  Anglican  ministers  ;  were  compelled 
to  "  occasionally  conform  "  or  run  serious  risks 
if  they  took  office  or  went  into  the  great  cor- 
porations of  the  day.  In  a  hundred  ways  they 

*  Cf.  Dairy raple,  Memoirs,  Part  II. ,  Book  1,  appendix. 
2 


18       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

were  made  to  feel  their  anomalous  position. 
Yet  in  spite  of  all  this,  and  the  many  weaken- 
ing factors  from  outside,  there  is  little  question 
that  Dissent  grew  and  is  now  growing  steadily 
stronger  in  England. 

Now  already  signs  were  appearing  of  a  new 
day  for  England.  The  dawn  of  that  glory  of 
commercial  supremacy  of  which  Anglo-Saxons 
boast,  and  which  is  the  race's  weightiest  respon- 
sibility before  God's  eternal  judgment-seat  was 
now  breaking  on  the  horizon.  Hamlets  became 
towns,  and  population  increased  by  leaps  and 
bounds. 

The  French  wars  had  much  to  do  with  this 
condition.  Safe  from  invasion,  for  already 
England  controlled  the  Channel,  English  indus- 
try and  agriculture  became  large  factors  in  the 
maintaining  of  the  armies  of  the  continent. 
The  demand  for  labor  kept  the  farming  popula- 
tion, not  only  from  crowding  and  competition, 
but  the  numbers  actually  decreased  up  to  1770 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  population  as  a 
whole  was  vastly  increasing.  At  the  same  time 
the  demands  for  farm  product,  and  the  high 
war  prices  made  this  "  a  golden  age  for  the 
English  peasant."*  M.  de  Lavergne  (quoted 
by  Prothero)  says  England  became  "  the  granary 

*  K.  E.  Prothero,  Pioneers  and  Progress  of  English  Farm- 
ing, p.  38. 


INTRODUCTORY  19 

of  Europe."  This  was  due  to  the  agricultural 
revolution  being  rapidly  effected,  which  prepared 
the  way  for  the  industrial  revolution  of  a  later 
date.  Wealth  increased  and  the  years  between 
the  death  of  Queen  Anne  in  1714  and  1720  were 
marked  by  a  most  destructive  and  demoralizing 
era  of  wild  speculation,  culminating  in  the  burst- 
ing of  the  South  Sea  Bubble  and  in  suicides  and 
ruined  reputations  that  impressed  the  warning 
all  too  lightly  on  the  public  conscience. 

Meanwhile,  forces  were  gathering  strength  in 
the  quiet  days  of  Townshend  and  Walpole's 
ascendencies  that  they  least  of  all  men  were 
likely  to  comprehend.  They  should  both  be 
awarded  much  praise  for  a  quiet  service  little 
noticed  by  the  historians,  but  which  helped  to 
solve  one  of  the  nation's  most  pressing  prob- 
lems. 

It  was  the  interest  Townshend  and  Walpole 
took  in  farming  that  introduced  new  methods 
into  England's  agriculture.  Townshend  gained 
from  his  favorite  theme  the  pleasant  nickname 
of  Turnips  Townshend.  When  in  1730  Wal- 
pole finally  overthrew  his  brother-in-law,  and 
took  his  place  as  sole  leader,  Townshend  retired 
with  joy  to  teach  England  the  mystery  of  crop 
rotation  and  continental  methods  of  raising 
stock  for  the  market. 

Walpole    also    thoroughly   understood  prac- 


20       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

tical  management  of  Lis  estates,  and  his  hold 
over  the  Tory  squire  was  not  a  little  due  to 
thorough  sympathy  with  many  of  his  most 
cherished  ideals.  He  was  able  to  identify  him- 
self both  with  the  commerce  of  England  to  which 
he  promised  peace,  and  with  the  Tory  gentry  to 
whom  he  was  akin  by  the  manner  of  his  life,  and 
by  the  quiet  protection  he  gave  them  during  the 
difficult  period  of  England's  agricultural  recon- 
struction. 

This  moderation  of  Walpole's  whole  adminis- 
tration ;  the  spirit  of  tolerance  he  preached  and 
established;  the  fashion  of  scouting  intense 
feeling,  and  scoffing  at  all  but  practical  and  ob- 
vious ambitions,  affected  English  life,  already 
largely  swallowed  up  in  its  increasing  prosper- 
ity. The  South  Sea  Bubble  of  1720  and  its 
collapse  left  English  life  deeply  infected  by  the 
speculative  and  trading  spirit.  Those  who  had 
never  felt  any  interest  in,  or  even  cherished  a 
positive  hostility  to,  the  increasing  commercial 
character  of  the  English  people  were  caught  in 
the  trading  mania,  and  no  reaction  completely 
undid  the  work  thus  begun.  The  religious  life 
of  the  opening  years  of  the  eighteenth  century 
was  deeply  affected  by  this  complete  change  in 
the  character  of  the  farming  population.  Ee- 
ligion  centred  about  the  parish  church,  and 
while  the  population  was  fixed  the  influence  was 


INTRODUCTORY  21 

fairly  steady.  But  the  arrangements  of  the 
parochial  system  broke  largely  down  under  the 
changed  conditions.  Wesley's  father  had  ter- 
rible experiences  with  the  half-savage  inhabi- 
tants of  Epworth,  where  his  manse  was  finally 
burnt  down  by  the  mob.  Nor  was  this  a  soli- 
tary instance.  No  great  industrial  change  is 
possible  without  suffering,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
arrangements  had  made  poor  provision  for  these 
changes.  As  Lecky  has  pointed  out,  the  Revo- 
lution of  1688  was  largely  a  movement  of  the 
town  population  and  the  trading  classes  against 
the  landed  gentry  of  England.  The  great  Whig 
leaders,  and  not  the  Church,  formed  the  body  of 
mediation.  The  Established  Church  was  bit- 
terly against  the  new  conditions,  and  lost  by  her 
bigotry  a  splendid  vantage  ground.  For  this 
reason  Dissent  claimed  a  large  proportion  of 
these  new  factors  in  England's  coming  great- 
ness. Happily  for  England  and  the  Establish- 
ment the  Whig  leaders  also  saw  the  need  of 
conciliating  the  Church,  and  of  moderating  its 
tone.  But  in  doing  this  there  was  introduced 
into  ecclesiastical  leadership  an  unwholesome 
worldly  moderatism,  that  stifled  real  faith,  and 
reduced  the  spiritual  zeal. 

One  of  the  weighty  spiritual  influences  of  this 
period  we  dare  not  overlook,  namely  the  Non- 
jurors  ;  partly  because  of  the  effect  in  a  general 


22       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

way  of  all  sincere  sacrifice,  but  more  particular- 
ly because  of  the  direct  historic  connection  be- 
tween all  phases  of  the  religious  movement  and 
these  Non  juror  theologians.  The  Nonjurors 
were  the  spiritual  children  of  a  past  period  of 
English  religious  life.  Lathbury,  in  his  ex- 
ceedingly partisan  history  of  them,  urges  that 
the  bishops  of  the  church  who  wanted  William 
to  come  to  England,  really  wanted  him  only  as 
a  regent.  When  WTilliam  and  Mary  ascend- 
ed to  the  throne,  Sancroft,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury ;  Ken,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells ; 
Tumm,  Bishop  of  Ely ;  Frampton  of  Glouces- 
ter ;  Lloyd  of  Norwich ;  White  of  Peterborough  ; 
Thomas  of  Worcester ;  Lake  of  Chichester,  and 
Cartwright  of  Chester,  nine  in  all,  refused  the 
oath  of  allegiance.  Of  these,  three  died  during 
the  year,  leaving  the  battle  to  the  famous  six 
nonjuring  divines.  The  history  of  their  opinions 
brings  into  strong  light  the  real  character  of 
much  of  the  teaching  in  the  Established  Church 
and  demonstrates  how  entirely  the  anti-Protes- 
tant element  has  been  underestimated  as  a  fac- 
tor in  it. 

The  influence  of  the  Nonjurors  was  wide  and 
deep.  They  had  suffered  for  their  convictions, 
and  they  were  in  many  cases  men  of  marked 
ability.  Writing,  teaching,  medicine,  and  law 
received  many  of  them,  and  thus  they  contribu- 


INTRODUCTORY  23 

ted  to  a  deepening  of  English  lay  life,  as  in  their 
sincerity  they  carried  their  convictions  with 
them  into  retirement.  They  attempted  to  per- 
petuate a  schism  in  the  Church,  and  even  made 
overtures  to  the  Greek  Church  for  reunion. 
Save,  however,  in  opposition  to  the  Establish- 
ment and  hatred  of  Dissenters  they  seem  to 
have  had  little  unity  of  opinion.  They  in  fact 
split  twice  into  factions,  and  waged  intense  war 
with  one  another  on  many  minor  points  of 
canonical  law  and  doubtful  episcopal  history. 
Naturally  they  remained  poor,  and  unable  there- 
fore to  buy  books  they  were  apt  to  settle  down 
near  libraries.  Oxford  was  most  favorable  to 
them  in  sentiment ;  hence  well  up  to  John  Wes- 
ley's days  they  were  strongly  represented  among 
the  haunters  of  the  libraries  there,  and  this  ac- 
counts in  some  measure  for  Oxford's  reaction- 
ary attitude  later  on. 

But  they  had  nothing  to  do  with  nonconfor- 
mity in  its  non-episcopal  branches.  Persecu- 
tion does  not  of  necessity  check,  but  it  does 
narrow  and  harden.  One  might  suppose  that 
the  easy  indulgence  of  the  days  after  Queen 
Anne  would  have  encouraged  both  the  Non- 
jurors  and  the  other  Dissenters.  But  the  Non- 
jurors  died  out  under  it,  and  /there  is  some 
evidence  that  goes  to  show  that  Walpole's  policy 
did  dissent  more  injury  than  Bolingbroke's  per- 


24:       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

secution.  The  nominal  restrictions  and  real  im- 
munity granted  to  Dissenters  was  demoralizing 
in  the  extreme.  If  anything  tended  to  low 
views  of  the  sacrament  surely  the  making  of 
them,  as  Cowper  says,  "  a  pick-lock  to  office  " 
was  that  most  fitted  to  do  so.  Walpole  never 
cared  to  rouse  the  Tory  squire  and  parson  by 
repealing  the  acts  passed  against  nonconfor- 
mity, but  he  winked  at  all  violations  and  passed 
an  annual  act  of  indemnity.  He  was  no  doubt 
partly  afraid  of  the  contest,  and  partly  saw  no 
difference  in  the  way  the  thing  was  done  if  only 
it  were  done.  But  the  moral  results  must  have 
been  bad  in  the  extreme.  No  one  felt  exactly 
satisfied,  but  no  one  felt  actually  abused. 

Tory  churchmen  sulked  and  made  no  effort  to 
understand  the  new  conditions.  Whig  church- 
men found  latitudinarianism  the  best  title  to 
place,  nor  did  they  realize  at  all  keenly  the 
changes  going  on  about  them.  Dissent  was 
satisfied  by  repeated  acts  of  indemnity  which 
saved  it  from  the  martyr's  crown,  but  checked 
also  the  martyr's  zeal.  The  nonjurors  were 
suspected  and  left  more  or  less  helpless.  Wal- 
pole was  in  so  far  a  splendid  politician.  His 
nature  was  coarse,  his  ambitions  low,  his  ideals 
false  ;  but  he  had  the  political  instinct  and  the 
unswerving  purpose  of  the  English  country 
gentleman,  with  a  power  of  setting  forth  his 


INTRODUCTORY  25 

side  of  the  case  that  made  him  a  match  for  far 
more  brilliant  men ;  and  he  saw  some  things 
clearly  that  neither  the  throne  nor  even  the 
more  ambitious  Whigs  were  willing  to  see.  He 
realized  the  need  of  peace.  He  realized  the 
strain  upon  the  country  of  the  Kevolution,  and 
desired  beyond  all  things  to  moderate  the  pas- 
sions— religious,  social,  and  political — to  which 
the  long  struggle  with  the  throne  and  foreign 
interference  had  given  rise.  He  was  unscrupu- 
lous in  his  employment  of  means.  From  the 
King  to  the  humble  dissenting  commoner  he 
made  money  do  his  work.  And  in  so  far  the 
country  squire  was  a  thorough  democrat:  he  was 
willing  to  bribe  even  the  humblest,  and  valued 
all  support  in  pounds  and  shillings  or  half- 
pence as  the  case  might  be.  But  England  was 
really  resting  and  not  sleeping.  The  ways  and 
means  of  "Turnips  Townshend"  and  Walpole 
were  well  adapted  for  giving  England  the  basis 
for  a  farther  economic  advance.  Nor  did  Wal- 
pole stand  as  most  country  squires  stood,  in  the 
way  of  commerce,  but,  on  the  contrary,  advanced 
the  cause  of  freer  trade  conditions.  He  protec- 
ted the  colonies  and  understood  the  wisdom 
there  of  his  general  let-alone  policy. 

Problems,  however,  were  becoming  pressing 
whose  range  and  character  the  rough  coarse- 
grained hunting  Norfolk  squire  was  no  more 


26        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

fitted  to  deal  with  than  would  an  honest  country 
boor  be  fitted  to  educate  a  bright  and  sensitive 
child. 

The  town  population  was  growing  ever  more 
rapidly.  The  social  strain  and  popular  discon- 
tent were  also  increasing.  A  class  was  rising 
in  England  a  description  of  which  finds  little 
place  in  the  witty  letters  of  Horace  "VValpole, 
and  no  worthy  recognition  in  the  literature  of 
the  period.  The  court  was  gay,  corrupt,  heart- 
less, and  increasingly  dull.  The  coarseness  of 
speech  and  manners  needs  no  illustration  to 
those  familiar  with  Thackeray's  description  of 
the  four  Georges  in  his  famous  lectures.  A 
readjustment  of  England's  forces  was  taking 
place.  The  old  yeoman  class,  for  instance,  was 
disappearing.  Many  causes  for  this  may  be  as- 
signed. Larger  areas  and  more  capital  were 
now  required  to  meet  the  demands  of  more  skil- 
ful farming.  Wealth  was  increasing,  and  as 
land  was  the  expression  for  social  station  it  had 
therefore  an  artificial  value  beyond  its  earning 
capacity.  Much  land  was  being  absorbed  by 
the  growing  towns,  so  that  although  enclosure 
acts  added  to  the  total  acreage  under  tillage,  yet 
the  chief  effect  was  to  ruin  small  copyholders 
and  the  freeholders  or  very  small  yeomen  by  de- 
priving them  of  common  and  bringing  them  into 
sharp  competition  with  the  cheaper  wholesale 


INTRODUCTORY  27 

farming.  So  that  although  the  nation  as  a 
whole  was  better  fed,  a  class  of  which  England 
had  always  been  proud  suffered  sadly. 

The  result  of  all  this  was  felt  by  the  Estab- 
lished Church.  There  were  no  adequate  pro- 
visions for  the  increasing  town  population,  and 
the  increasing  number  of  tithe  complaints  showed 
the  disarrangement  of  the  parochial  system. 

Town  life  began  to  exert  its  inevitable  fasci- 
nation over  the  minds  of  men  because  of  the 
essentially  social  character  of  men.  Yet  it  is 
easy  to  see  from  experiences  in  our  own  day 
what  the  demoralization  must  have  been  when 
ignorant  healthy  country  lads  wer6  poured  into 
towns  and  cities,  whose  coarseness  of  life  and 
utter  recklessness  in  morals  have  been  too  well 
portrayed  to  us  in  the  pages  of  Defoe,  Fielding, 
Swift,  and  Smollett. 

There  is  no  concealing  the  fact  that  the  reigns 
of  George  I  and  II,  were,  amidst  increasing 
prosperity,  years  of  moral  and  religious  decline. 
Philanthropy,  as  the  word  is  now  understood, 
was  nou- existent,  although  individual  kindness 
happily  never  died  out.  A  few  individuals  like 
Berkeley  and  Oglethorpe  and  some  Quakers  kept 
alive  better  ideals  and  strove  against  the  stream. 
The  influence  of  the  Court,  of  the  aristocracy, 
and  even  of  Queen  Caroline,  was  bad  and 
demoralizing. 


28       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Only  one  aspect  of  the  national  life  was 
socially  hopeful.  England's  union  as  a  nation 
was  being  completed.  The  passions  of  religious 
and  political  strife  were  being  allayed.  Wai- 
pole  was  at  least  successful  in  binding  the  nation 
together  in  common  comparative  indifference 
to  everything  spiritual  and  savoring  of  enthu- 
siasm. He  kept  peace  at  home  and  abroad 
before  the  nation  as  an  aim  worth  striving  for. 
And  the  years  of  peace  after  the  exhaustion 
produced  by  the  wars  of  William  were  most 
grateful.  The  very  evil  of  a  national  debt  made 
the  union  of  England  more  sure.  Holders  of 
consols  that  would  almost  certainly  have  been 
repudiated  by  the  Stuarts  had  they  come  to 
the  throne,  were  made  thereby  somewhat  less 
Jacobite  in  their  feelings. 

Yet  on  the  whole  the  condition  of  both  Church 
and  nation  was  lamentable.  There  were  good 
men  in  the  Church  and  able  men  in  the  nation. 
William  Law  was  not  the  only  faithful  upholder 
of  purer  traditions,  nor  was  Oglethorpe  the 
only  far-seeing  well-wisher  of  his  country.  But 
the  whole  tone  of  life  was  low,  coarse,  and 
material.  Nor  was  established  Christianity  in 
a  position  to  affect  the  social  regeneration 
needed  without  great  changes  in  her  tone  and 
spirit. 

The  Tory  clergy,  in  constant  contact  with  the 


INTRODUCTORY  29 

country  squire,  remained  still  loyal  to  worn-out 
traditions.  They  hated  popery  too  heartily  to 
throw  their  weight  without  reserve  upon  the 
side  of  the  Pretender ;  they  at  the  same  time 
never  warmly  welcomed  the  Hanoverian  suc- 
cession. The  high  stations  in  the  ecclesiastical 
world  were  therefore  filled  by  the  few  favorites 
of  the  Whigs,  and  these  were  powerless  for  the 
most  part  to  influence  the  lower  clergy,  who 
despised  them,  had  they  even  possessed  the 
ambition  to  try  to  do  so.  Never  were  the  evils 
of  church  patronage  so  patent,  never  did  men 
think  so  lightly  of  those  evils.  Walpole  scarcely 
disguised  his  contempt  for  his  ecclesiastical 
creations,  and  the  first  two  Georges  seldom 
troubled  themselves  as  Anne  had  done  with  the 
power  of  church  patronage.  George  II's  favor- 
ite, Lady  Yarmouth,  sold  in  an  ingenious  way 
a  bishopric  to  a  clergyman  for  £5,000.  He 
made  a  bet  with  her  that  he  would  not  be  made 
a  Bishop  and  as,  of  course,  he  lost  he  paid  her 
in  full.*  Men  ceased  to  be  servants  for  the 
sake  of  Christ  and  became  lackeys  for  the  sake 
of  gold.  The  devout  and  earnest  Tory  church- 
men, of  whom  there  were  not  a  few,  had  no 
influence  with  the  Whig  population  of  the 
towns,  and  the  ambitious  latitudinarian  prelacy 
too  often  only  influenced  it  for  ill.  Walpole 
*  Related  by  Thackeray  in  The  Four  Georges. 


SO       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

compensated  the  dissenters  for  the  disabilities 
he  refused  to  remove,  by  weakening  in  every 
way  the  Tory  churchmen  who  might  oppose  his 
annual  acts  of  indemnity.  In  spite  of  greatly 
increasing  population  no  new  parishes  were 
projected.  Bishops  at  times  scarce  knew  the 
limits  of  their  dioceses,  and  the  system  of 
pluralities  left  whole  districts  in  the  power  of 
absentees.  The  exhaustion  of  the  Revolution 
extended  itself  to  theological  controversy,  and 
no  better  enthusiasm  than  theological  contro- 
versy took  its  place.  Many  Dissenters  were  won 
to  the  Establishment  by  the  tolerance  in  its 
leaders,  and  others  finding  its  advantages  from 
a  worldly  point  of  view  considerable,  placed  no 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  conversion  of  their 
children.  The  sincere  but  narrow  and  nu- 
merically small  band  of  nonjurors  were  slowly 
disappearing,  and  with  them  was  vanishing  the 
last  evidences  of  the  fierce  political  bitterness 
that  vigorously  opposed  the  Protestant  succes- 
sion. The  chief  religious  struggle  of  the  period 
of  Queen  Anne  and  the  first  years  of  the  Hano- 
verian succession  was  the  controversy  with  the 
Deists.  This  battle  was  carried  on  with  .great 
intellectual  ability  between  Hobbes,  Boling- 
broke,  Blount,  Shaftesbury,  Hume,  Toland,  and 
Collins  on  the  one  side,  with  Lord  Herbert  of 
Cherbury  (1581-1648)  as  the  chief  inspiration 


INTRODUCTORY  31 

to  the  movement ;  while  on  the  other  Warbur- 
ton  (Legation  of  Moses,  1738),  Berkeley,  Butler 
(1692-1752),  Hutcheson  (1694-1746),  and  Clarke 
made  equally  able  defences  of  theism.  The  dis- 
pute lasted  on  long  after  the  religious  revival 
had  begun,  but  on  the  whole  seems  to  have  had 
little  to  do  with  it.  It  was  Germany  and  France 
that  felt  that  influence  most. 

The  real  weakness  of  the  deist  party  was  less 
the  inadequacy  of  their  arguments  than  the 
general  moral  tone  of  their  lives.  It  is  extremely 
doubtful  if  the  able  defence  made  was  either 
understood  or  much  studied  by  the  mass  of 
even  thinking  Englishmen.  Men's  minds  were 
in  profound  confusion.  Religion  was  not  differ- 
entiated from  theological  opinion  and  both  had 
been  once  considered  important  as  state  matters. 
Now  a  change  took  place.  Ever  since  Crom- 
well's time  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  a  logical 
position  between  the  conflicting  claims  of  relig- 
ion, liberty,  and  the  state  had  been  too  repeat- 
edly emphasized  by  violence  and  party  passion 
not  to  leave  men  weary  of  even  the  considera- 
tion of  some  of  these  claims.  The  Tory  party 
that  had  preached  extreme  opinions  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  sacredness  of  the  throne  was  in  a 
bad  plight  when  the  Georges  were  conceded 
undisputed  possession,  and  all  the  appoint- 
ments were  given  to  the  Whig  partisans.  ]  The 


32       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

practical  outcome  of  Whig  rule  and  William's 
toleration  was  the  acceptance  by  the  mass  of 
men  of  the  notion  that  religion  was  a  private 
matter,  and  not  much  matter  at  that.  Men's 
energies  were  gladly  given  to  other  activities 
than  theological  wrangling.  The  literary  activi- 
ties of  Queen  Anne's  day  had  stirred  England. 
Philosophy  and  history  claimed  the  talents  and 
the  time  of  the  better  class  of  even  devouter 
churchmen.  Toleration  became  identical  in  the 
minds  of  educated  men  with  latitudinarianism. 
Bishops  cared  not  to  protest  against  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  Court  that  had  created  them ;  and 
Tory  churchmen  dared  scarce  attack  the  man- 
ners of  the  King,  while  men  suspected  them 
of  attempts  to  undermine  his  throne.  Hence 
scandals  passed  unrebuked  that  established  for 
the  world  of  fashion  a  standard  as  low  as  that 
of  the  French  court,  with  an  added  coarseness. 
It  lacked  but  little  and  the  rising  industrial 
class,  estranged  by  political  differences  from  the 
more  earnest  of  the  clergy,  and  betrayed  in 
large  measure  by  the  court  favorites  in  prefer- 
ment, would  have  drifted  as  hopelessly  away 
from  all  religious  leadership  as  did  the  third 
estate  in  the  history  of  France. 

Moreover,  in  the  reaction  against  the  intol- 
erable tyranny  of  the  Church,  and  in  violent 
opposition  to  extreme  opinions  foisted  on  Chris- 


INTRODUCTORY  33 

tianitj  by  narrow-minded  and  often  self-seeking 
ecclesiastics,  many  of  the  well-minded  and  intel- 
ligent people  welcomed  the  attacks  now  made 
freely  under  the  protection  of  toleration  upon 
Christianity.  Thus  the  early  years  of  Wai- 
pole's  ministry  mark  probably  the  lowest  point 
to  which  the  cause  of  organized  religion  in  Eng- 
land may  be  said  to  have  fallen. 

Oxford  plays  so  important  a  part  in  the  whole 
awakening  of  English  life  that  some  account  of 
its  condition  at  the  close  of  George  II's  reign 
must  be  given.  Yet  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to 
correctly  estimate  the  moral  and  spiritual  con- 
ditions existing  there.  The  older  dominance  of 
independent  ministers  had  been  long  shaken 
off,  and  Tory  and  Jacobite  sympathies  were  al- 
most openly  confessed.  The  religious  atmos- 
phere seems  to  have  been  largely  nominal.  The 
scholarship  was  low,  though  not  so  low  as  at 
Cambridge.  Chesterfield  speaks  of  the  "ob- 
scurity "  into  which  Cambridge  at  this  time  had 
fallen.  It  was  from  this  stand-point,  no  doubt, 
that  Gibbon  judged  Oxford  so  severely.  He 
went  out  from  her  disappointed,  ever  to  mourn 
the  days  spent  there  as  wasted  time.  On  the 
other  hand,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  held  in  pro- 
foundest  reverence  the  halls  of  Oxford,  and  par- 
ticularly his  "own  nest  of  singing  birds"  in 
Pembroke  College.  Gibbon  wrote,  "To  the 
3 


34:       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

University  of  Oxford  I  acknowledge  no  obliga- 
tions, and  she  will  as  cheerfully  renounce  me 
for  a  son  as  I  am  willing  to  disclaim  her  for  a 
mother."*  The  other  extreme  criticism  comes 
from  the  Methodists,  who  saw  in  Oxford  only 
students  wasting  time  in  rioting  and  ill  living. 
Very  surely  it  was  not  right  or  nice  for  the  uni- 
versity to  discourage  Wesley  and  his  friends ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  great  deal  of  the  abuse 
was  no  doubt  provoked  by  a  very  excessive  and 
objectionable  priggishness.  Indeed,  one  must 
conclude  that  Oxford,  from  the  stand-point  of 
her  highest  possibilities,  fell  far  below  the  meas- 
ure men  had  a  right  to  expect  of  her,  but  that, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  spite  of  all  her  faults,  like 
the  English  Constitution,  she  did  her  work  far 
better  than  anyone  had  any  reason  to  hope  it 
would  be  done,  for  her  disadvantages  were  very 
great. 

One  of  the  unfortunate  features  of  the  Res- 
toration was  the  placing  of  an  actual  premium 
upon  dissipation.  To  be  a  "  gentleman  "  it  was 
necessary  to  forswear  even  the  virtues  for  which 
Puritanism  had  stood,  as  well  as  its  narrowness 
and  bigotry.  Hence  Tory  Oxford  undoubtedly 
degenerated  in  both  morals  and  manners.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  accept  the  exceedingly  severe 
criticisms  of  the  early  Methodists  upon  the  ir- 

*  Quoted  by  Andrew  Lang. 


INTRODUCTORY  35 

religion  of  Oxford  in  order  to  form  a  very  low 
opinion  of  the  general  life.  The  doctrines  of 
the  Reformation  were  no  longer  fashionable, 
even  as  contained  in  the  thirty-nine  articles, 
and  drinking  and  gaming  were  all  too  common. 
The  regular  attendance  of  the  early  Methodists 
upon  the  sacraments  brought  down  the  scorn  of 
the  whole  university  upon  them,  and  consider- 
ing Oxford's  religious  professions,  and  the  zeal 
with  which  the  same  undergraduates-  gladly 
"rabbled"  a  Dissenting  meeting-house,  this 
conduct  cannot  be  excused  even  on  the  basis  of 
undoubted  priggishness  on  the  part  of  the  Meth- 
odists ;  yet  Oxford  was  still  the  home1  of  some 
of  the  noblest  traditions  of  English  life.  Soon 
the  spark  was  to  touch  England  that  had  been 
kindled  at  her  altars,  and  the  flame  of  religious 
devotion  was  to  enwrap  the  life  of  the  nation, 
whose  proudest  memories  may  well  centre  about 
the  home  and  birthplace  of  so  much  that  is  best 
in  her  spiritual  and  intellectual  life.  But  in  the 
clay  of  which  we  speak  she  shared  the  spiritual 
and  intellectual  depression  with  all  England. 
Whigs  and  Tories  were  still  f  fanatical  within 
her  bounds.  Conflicts  were  common  between 
the  two  opposing  political  opinions,  and  the 
churchly  character  of  Oxford  gave  the  Tory 
party  a  more  or  less  steady  preponderance. 
That  the  intellectual  level  was  low  is  the  evi- 


36       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

dence  of  all.  Chesterfield,  Adam  Smith,  Gib- 
bon, and  the  Wesleys  have  but  one  opinion  on 
this  point.  The  fellows  and  professors  took  no 
interest  in  the  students,  and  the  heads  of  houses 
could  only  now  and  then  be  stirred  to  either 
discipline  or  zeal  for  a  reformation.  The  stu- 
dents were  wild  partisans,  and  ready  to  "  mob  " 
a  dissenter  or  obnoxious  Whig,  but  drinking, 
gaming,  and  loose  living  were  the  rule,  and  so- 
briety marked  out  anyone,  save,  perhaps,  a  poor 
servitor,  for  contempt  and  ridicule.  Universi- 
ties are  intellectual  aristocracies,  and  any  aris- 
tocracy is  jealous  of  its  position  and  highly 
conservative  if  not  actually  reactionary.  The 
churchly  character  of  Oxford's  aristocracy  gave 
still  farther  strength  to  this  feeling.  Thus  it 
happened  that  the  university  failed  to  recognize 
even  influences  she  greatly  strengthened,  and 
gave,  unwittingly,  support  only  to  movements 
she  opposed.  Cambridge  was  ever  more  toler- 
ant in  her  spirit,  but  she  also  committed  the 
same  faults.  And  although  later  in  her  history 
she  spared  Eowland  Hill,  yet  circumstances 
other  than  her  inherent  tolerance  probably  in- 
duced her  to  do  so. 

Some  of  the  older  authorities  were,  however, 
still  doing  their  work.  There  is  no  absolute 
break  in  the  long  succession  of  great  names  that 
adorn  both  the  established  and  the  nonconform- 


INTRODUCTORY  37 

ing  churches.  Yet  a  strange  lethargy  overtook  the  f 
religious  world,  and  amidst  rising  material  pros- 
perity on  every  hand,  amidst  the  favoring  in- 
fluences of  peace  abroad  and  toleration  at  home,  , 
amidst  the  awakening  influences  of  a  growing 
commerce  and  an  agricultural  revolution,  the 
cause  of  organized  religion  failed  to  secure  men's 
sympathy  or  to  influence  men's  lives.  New 
aims  began  to  occupy  men,  and  new  opinions 
to  lay  hold  of  their  imaginations.  New  needs 
pressed  home  by  growing  population,  and  the 
increasing  problems  of  domestic  concern  made 
men  restless.  The  stout  country  gentleman  of 
rough  common-sense,  utterly  lacking  in  both 
idealism  and  imagination,  had  played  his  part. 
A  new  era  was  dawning  for  England.  New 
wants,  little  understood  by  either  the  "Whig 
leaders  of  the  prevailing  type  or  the  Tory 
leaders  of  the  past,  were  preparing  the  way  for 
a  change  in  English  thought  and  English  man- 
ners. Quiet  influences  of  which  the  ordinary 
historian  takes  little  note  were  at  work.  Sin- 
cere and  godly  foreign  artisans,  German  and 
French,  were  at  work  infusing  new  spiritual  as 
well  as  artistic  spirit  into  the  life  of  the  com- 
munities where  they  settled.  A  common  hunger 
for  better  things  began  to  make  itself  felt. 
This  was  evidenced  in  many  ways.  The  re- 
ligious rising  called  for  men  to  guide  it ;  and 


38       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

these  reacted  and  gave  definite  character  to  the 
rising  of  the  spiritual  life.  The  signs  of  the 
coming  movement  were  already  at  hand  during 
the  last  twelve  years  of  Walpole's  administra- 
tion after  he  had  shaken  off  Townshend  to 
govern  alone  (1930-42).  For  instance  in  "Wales 
the  movement  had  already  started  and  gained 
good  headway  under  Griffith  Jones,  and  that 
before  ever  the  Methodist  movement  of  Oxford 
was  heard  of  there.  Defoe  marked  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-six  charity  schools  in  London 
in  1747.  The  state  of  prisons  had  received  at- 
tention in  Parliament.  Reforms  were  being 
forever  pressed  on  the  unwilling  Walpole.  The 
people  had  already  picked  out  their  future 
political  champion.  The  manners  of  street  and 
court  and  home  began  to  attract  attention. 
All  classes  began  to  feel  the  need  of  something 
that  had  drifted  out  of  life.  The  very  scepti- 
cism to  which  Butler  and  Warburton  had  been 
making  replies  awoke  in  men's  hearts  the  ques- 
tioning that  wrangles  and  disputes  had  stilled. 
Good  men  began  to  battle  in  unknown  places 
like  Epworth  with  the  darkness  about  them. 
The  dreary  platitude  of  the  majority  of  the  pul- 
pits left  men  hungry  for  more  real  teaching. 
The  manners  at  court  shocked  the  feelings  of  the 
sober  middle  class.  This  was  in  some  respects 
very  fortunate  for  Parliament  and  its  steady 


INTRODUCTORY  39 

development,  because  to  it  the  people  now 
looked  for  guidance,  and  the  throne  left  domes- 
tic affairs  wholly  alone.  At  the  same  time  the 
outrageous  corruption  which  Walpole's  creatures 
had  reduced  to  a  fine  art  rendered  men  restless, 
for  they  had  been  taught  submission  to  a  king  but 
not  to  a  purchased  majority.  The  pamphlets  of 
the  days  of  Walpole's  last  administration  show 
beneath  all  that  was  fractious  and  unreasonable 
a  steady  appeal  to  better  though  half -forgotten 
traditions,  and  to  a  moral  temper  in  the  Eng- 
lish people,  which  amid,  many  wanderings  and 
aberrations  has  yet  given  tone  and  character 
to  the  nation's  development. 


LECTUKE  H. 

THE  METHODIST   MOVEMENT 

ENGLAND'S  lethargy  was  soon  to  be  broken. 
In  1730  while  Walpole  was  ridding  himself  of 
his  brother-in-law  Townshend,  all  Oxford  was 
reading  William  Law's  Serious  Call  to  a  Devout 
and  Holy  Life,  which  had  been  published  the  year 
before.  All  great  movements  inevitably  centre 
sooner  or  later  about  great  names;  but  this 
movement  was  already  in  the  air.  The  hunger 
of  an  unfed  spiritual  life,  the  restless  discontent 
with  unreality,  the  weary  seeking  for  some 
highest  good  was  felt  in  very  many  quarters, 
in  many  different  ways. 

The  Moravian  brethren  in  London  were  mak- 
ing converts  to  their  rather  complicated  and  im- 
practical doctrine  and  discipline.  The  Welsh 
revival  was  well  under  way.  The  scenes  at  Ep- 
worth  were,  no  doubt,  more  characteristic  than 
is  to-day  easily  proved,  of  many  faithful  parish 
ministers  now  utterly  unknown  who  were  try- 
ing to  do  their  whole  religious  duty.  To  thirsty 
spirits  Law's  appeal  was  a  cry  to  come  to  the 
springs  of  living  water.  Hundreds  heard  the 
40 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  41 

appeal,  and  came  and  drank.  William  Law 
had  ceased  in  1717  to  act  as  a  clergyman,  and 
lived  in  a  quiet  and  religious  seclusion  as  direc- 
tor of  souls  to  two  elderly  women  of  some 
means.  His  work  inspires  intellectual  religious 
admiration.  To  this  Serious  Call  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson  owed  his  awakened  spiritual  life.  The 
passage  is  familiar  where  he  says,  "  I  then  be- 
came a  sort  of  lax  talker  against  religion,  for  I 
did  not  much  think  against  it ;  and  this  lasted  till 
I  went  to  Oxford,  where  it  would  not  be  suffered. 
When  at  Oxford,  I  took  up  Law's  Serious  Call 
to  a  Devout  and  Holy  Life,  expecting  to  find  it  a 
dull  book  (as  such  books  generally  are)  and  per- 
haps to  laugh  at  it.  But  I  found  Law  quite  an 
over-match  for  me ;  and  this  was  the  first  occa- 
sion of  my  thinking  in  earnest  of  religion,  after 
I  became  capable  of  rational  inquiry."  "  From 
this  time  onward,"  remarks  Boswell,  "religion 
was  the  predominant  object  of  his  thoughts."  * 
And  again  he  says,  "He  much  commended 
Law's  Serious  Call  which,  he  said,  was  the 
finest  piece  of  hortatory  theology  in  any  lan- 
guage." f  Law  influenced  men  by  his  appeal 
to  the  slumbering  and  scattered  religious  ener- 
gies of  England.  Not  many  followed  him  in 

*  Boswell,  Life  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson^  p.  13.    Malone's 
Edition. 
\Ibid.,  p.  175. 


42       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

his  views  of  authority  ;  fewer  still  accepted  his 
vague  and  ascetic  mysticism  learnt  from  Bohme. 
But  many  heard  his  cry  to  come  into  real  and 
not  nominal  fellowship  with  God.  Many  awoke 
to  consider  the  whole  question  of  life,  religion, 
God,  and  the  message  and  work  of  Christ 
Jesus.  Keble  once  said  long  after  to  Froude, 
"Froude,  you  thought  Law's  Serious  Call  was 
a  clever  book;  it  seems  to  me  as  if  you  had 
said  the  Day  of  Judgment  will  be  a  pretty 
sight."*  The  profound  impression  made  by 
Law,  and  the  new  interest  in  religion  that 
awoke  men's  hearts  in  England  gave  rise  not 
to  one  set  of  opinions  but  to  many,  not  to  one 
ritual  but  to  many  forms ;  not  to  one  organiza- 
tion but  to  many  organizations.  It  was  very 
natural  that  the  work  should  first  find  a  hear- 
ing in  Oxford — the  home  of  Nonjuring  theology 
which  was  distinctly  High  Church  in  its  tradi- 
tions and  sympathies. 

As  early  as  the  Convocation  in  1702  the 
Established  Church  was  commonly  divided 
into  two  parties  called  High  Church  and 
Low  Church.f  The  Oxford  Methodists  be- 
longed distinctly  to  the  High  Church  party. 
They  communicated  weekly  at  Christ  Church 

*  Quoted  by  Dean  Church,  The  Oxford  Movement,  London, 
1892,  p.  29. 

t  Burnet,  History  of  Our  Own  Times,  Vol.  II.,  p.  318. 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  43 

and  laid  great  emphasis  upon  the  rubrics  and 
canons.  They  fasted  twice  a  week,  upon  Wed- 
nesday and  Friday.  Clayton  evidently  held 
that  "  an  outward  sacrifice  "  was  offered  at  the 
communion.  They  religiously  observed  saints' 
days.  They  all  held  the  nonjuror  doctrines  of 
apostolic  succession  and  of  the  power  of  the 
priest  to  forgive  sin.  Wesley,  late  in  life,  en- 
forced penance  and  confession.  Some  of  the 
Nonjurors  had  maintained  the  efficacy  of 
prayers  for  the  dead,  and  this  was  held  as  an 
opinion  by  at  least  one  of  the  Oxford  Metho- 
dists. They  all  were  inclined  to  believe  any 
baptism  invalid  save  as  administered  by  Episco- 
pal authority.  And  "Wesley  ruined  his  influence 
in  Georgia  by  his  insistance  upon  rigid  obser- 
vance of  the  rubrics  of  the  prayer-book,  and  his 
upholding,  perhaps  quite  unduly  and  certainly 
unwisely,  his  dignity  as  a  priest.  "  It  was  in 
November,  1729,"  writes  John  Wesley, *  "four 
young  gentlemen  of  Oxford,  Mr.  John  Wesley, 
fellow  of  Lincoln  College  ;  Mr.  Charles  Wesley, 
student  of  Christ  Church ;  Mr.  Morgan,  com- 
moner of  Christ  Church,  and  Mr.  Kirkham,  of 
Merton  College,  began  to  spend  some  evenings 
in  a  week  together  in  reading,  chiefly  the  Greek 
Testament."  Others  joined  the  group,  which 
varied  in  size.  Fasting,  prayer,  and  visiting  the 
*  Works,  Vol.  VIII. ,  p.  334. 


44       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Castle,  where  felons  were  confined,  or  Bocardo, 
where  debtors  lay,  were  the  accepted  means  of 
grace,  together  with  the  weekly  sacrament. 
There  was  no  intended  departure  from  the  An- 
glican Church,  but  no  very  profound  study  of 
either  her  history  or  of  her  ideals,  least  of  all 
was  there  any  attempt  to  master  the  vast 
ranges  of  theological  opinion  that  have,  from 
time  to  time,  found  a  hospitable  welcome  under 
her  roof,  or  even  dominated  her  councils.  It  so 
happened  that  the  Church  of  England  at  the 
time  of  Wesley's  early  activity  was  mildly  Ar- 
minian  in  her  thinking,  in  spite  of  the  decided 
Calvinism  of  her  articles.  Thus  it  happened 
that  mild  Arminianism  became  "Wesley's  work- 
ing creed.  The  caricature  of  Calvinism  which 
he  attacked  in  his  later  career  in  his  controversy 
with  Whitefield,  Toplady,  and  Kowland  Hill  and 
others,  and  which,  alas,  was  as  unthinkingly  de- 
fended by  them,  was  really  all  Wesley  seems  to 
have  known  of  Calvin  and  his  real  views.  Wes- 
ley describes  once  his  horror  at  stumbling  upon 
the  Canons  of  Dort  in  the  Bodleian  Library, 
and  writes : 

"  But  what  a  scene  is  here  disclosed !  I  won- 
der not  at  the  heavy  curse  of  God,  which  so 
soon  after  fell  on  our  church  and  nation.  What 
a  pity  it  is,  that  the  Holy  Synod  of  Trent  and 
that  of  Dort  did  not  sit  at  the  same  time  ;  nearly 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  45 

allied  as  they  were,  not  only  as  to  the  purity 
of  doctrine  [the  italics  are  ours]  which  each 
of  them  established,  but  also  as  to  the  spirit 
wherewith  they  acted,  if  the  latter  did  not 
exceed."  * 

But  it  never  seems  to  have  occurred  to  this 
omnivorous  reader  to  consult  Calvin  himself  to 
see  whether  the  Synod  of  Dort  truly  represented 
either  Calvinism  or  Calvin's  spirit. 

In  fact  there  is  no  more  painful  chapter  in 
the  history  of  the  evangelical  revival  than  its 
theological  disputings,  and  no  more  obvious  fact 
to  any  thoughtful  student  of  the  early  move- 
ment than  its  theological  barrenness.  Even  the 
simpler  theological  distinctions  were  confound- 
ed by  the  early  teachings  of  John  Wesley  and 
Whitefield.  Wesley  confounded  justification 
by  faith  with  sanctification.  And  although  his 
own  sound  common-sense  saved  him  person- 
ally from  extravagances,  had  the  Methodist 
movement  been  an  intellectual  movement  in  the 
same  sense  that  the  Keformation  was,  there 
would  have  been  just  the  same  outbreaks  of 
fanaticism  and  theological  extravagances  with 
which  Luther  had  to  deal.  Nor  is  it  without 
significance  that  the  great  body  of  Methodists 
who  received  so  permanent  an  impress  of  that 
mighty  spirit,  although  split  into  great  numbers 

*  Journal,  July,  1741,  p.  215. 


46       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

of  bodies  by  various  disputes,  have  never  been 
troubled  by  theological  quarrels.  The  disputes 
have  been  about  administration  and  ritual,  or 
real  or  supposed  departures  from  the  primitive 
simplicity  of  manner  and  life.  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odism neither  began  under  theological  inspira- 
tion, nor  furnished  it.  And  it  must  also  be 
noted  that  it  was  the  followers  of  "Whitefield 
and  not  Whitefield  himself  who  exalted  the  the- 
ological disputations  which  so  injured  the  New 
Connection  of  Lady  Huntingdon.  Whitefield 
himself  asked  that  Wesley  should  preach  his 
funeral  sermon.  Nor  can  anything  be  sweeter 
than  the  drawing  together  of  the  two  men  after 
the  first  heat  had  subsided.  Whitefield  is  said 
to  have  been  asked  by  a  bigoted  follower  of 
Calvinistic  pretensions  if  he  thought  that  they 
would  meet  Wesley  in  heaven.  "Nay,"  said 
Whitefield,  "John  Wesley  will  be  so  near  the 
throne,  that  I  doubt  if  we  often  even  catch  a 
glimpse  of  him."  It  needs  only  a  simple  read- 
ing of  Wesley's  sermon  in  reply  to  Whitefield  to 
see  that  both  men  were  thoroughly  out  of  their 
element  in  the  controversy  which  separated  their 
followings,  and  which  vexed  sadly  the  course  of 
f^  the  religious  awakening.  The  success  of  the 
/  Arminian  Methodists  no  more  stamps  their 
loose  theological  thinking  with  heaven's  seal  of 
approval  than  the  comparative  failure  of  Calvin- 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  47 

istic  Methodism  would  lead  us  to  question  the      \ 
intellectual  value  of  Calvinism. 

John  Wesley  believed  in  witchcraft ;  used 
the  lot ;  decided  questions  by  opening  the  Bible 
and  reading  the  top  verse  of  the  page  ;  thought 
hysteria  was  possession  by  evil  spirits.  Every 
event  in  his  life  was  a  miraculous  intervention, 
from  the  stopping  of  a  headache  to  the  ceasing 
of  rain  that  he  might  preach.  His  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  was  yet  utterly  uncriti- 
cal even  in  the  sense  of  that  word  in  his  own 
day.  He  had  a  splendid  mind,  was  a  sound 
classical  scholar,  an  omnivorous  reader,  and  an 
amusing  and  original  literary  critic.  He  had 
picked  up  German,  French,  Italian  and  even  a 
little  Spanish,  not  thoroughly,  but  so  that  he 
could  use  them  practically.  But  he  was  neither 
fond  of  nor  given  to  exhausting  a  topic  in 
search  of  fundamental  principles.  His.  life  and 
habit  were  based  upon  experience.  Every  in- 
novation was  thrust  upon  him  as  a  result  of  ex- 
perience. He  objected  to  field-preaching  until 
experiences  with  Whitefield  taught  him  its  use. 
He  disliked  the  "  class  system  "  until  experience 
with  the  Moravian  brethren  led  him  to  adopt  it. 
His  own  mother  argued  with  him  against  stop- 
ping lay  preaching,  and  only  when  she  touched 
upon  her  experience  of  the  practical  effect  did 
Wesley  yield.  He  never  thought  through  the 


48       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

physical  manifestations,  which  at  first  he  en- 
couraged, and  then  discouraged;  not  because  he 
had  any  explanation  or  any  settled  convictions 
in  regard  to  them,  but  because  experience  led 
him  to  act  at  first  favorably  and  then  unfavor- 
ably. That  such  a  man  was  raised  up  was 
God's  great  goodness  to  England.  As  a  leader, 
organizer,  preacher,  a  cheerful,  constant,  patient 
but  despotic  ruler  Wesley  was  just  what  the 
awakening  needed.  But  to  expect  from  this 
restless  energy,  this  unceasing  preacher,  any 
serious  contribution  to  the  theological  work  of 
such  men  as  Burnet,  Stillingfleet,  and  Tillotson, 
would  be  irrational.  Wesley  was  amusingly  ar- 
gumentative. Indeed  Isaac  Taylor  justly  says, 
"If  he  had  been  less  argumentative  and  less 
categorical,  and  more  meditative,  he  would  have 
set  Wesley  an  Methodism  on  a  broader  theolog- 
ical foundation."  *  The  revival  was  not  theo- 
logical in  its  early  phases,  it  was  practical. 
The  disputes  of  the  deists  had  not  reached  the 
mining  population  of  Kingswood,  nor  had  the 
able  defence  of  Revelation  greatly  changed 
the  attitude  of  the  leisure  classes  toward  so- 
cial righteousness  and  individual  purity  and  un- 
selfishness. 

If  the  theological  and  doctrinal  side  of  Wes- 
ley's teachings  was  not  the  strongest,  with  ten- 

*  Wesley  and  Methodism,  p.  36. 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  49 

fold  force  may  it  be  said  that  Whitefield  was 
injured  ratlier  than  helped  by  the  doctrinal 
statements  to  which  he  attached  importance. 
As  between  Wesley's  Arminianism  and  White- 
field's  Calvinism,  if  it  were  necessary  to  choose, 
it  were  better  in  respect  to  Calvin's  memory  to 
take  the  Arminianism.  Eowland  Hill,  Laving- 
ton,  and  Toplady  substituted  abuse  for  argu- 
ment, and,  it  is  needless  to  add,  brought  no 
new  light  therefore  to  the  solution  of  the  pure- 
ly philosophical  question  involved.  The  fact  of 
the  matter  was  that  the  interest  in  the  question 
was  not  really  theological  at  all  as  far  as  Wes- 
ley went,  but  purely  social,  ethical,  and  practi- 
cal. He  thought  antinomianism  was  bound  up 
in  the  caricatures  of  Calvinism  he  had  learned 
from  the  seventeenth  century  men,  and  attacked 
it  accordingly.  Nor  can  we  think  it  aught  but 
a  tender  providence  that  kept  the  imperious 
temper  of  Wesley  from  accepting  the  theology 
of  Dort  as  a  basis  for  his  religious  development, 
when  even  the  sweet  temper  of  Toplady  was  so 
soured  by  it  that  he  seriously  debates  the  ques- 
tion of  the  salvation  of  an  Arminian.  "  I  must 
question,"  he  writes,  "  whether  a  man  that  dies 
an  Arminian  can  go  to  heaven."  *  As  this  dic- 
tum would  have  excluded  the  vast  majority  of 

*  Quoted  by  Lecky,  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  Vol.  II.,  p.  65. 
4 


50       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

English  Christians  at  that  time,  one  is  glad  to 
remember  that  Toplady  was  then  only  thirty 
and  had  not  yet  written  Rock  of  Ages  cleft 
for  me  !  The  Calvinistic  wing  of  the  Metho- 
dist Movement  never  made  any  advance  on 
Owen's  theology,  at  its  best,  and  fell  far  below 
it  at  its  worst.  Indeed  if  any  cause  is  to  be 
assigned  for  the  relative  barrenness  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic Methodists  everywhere,  save  in  Wales, 
it  is  to  be  sought,  not  indeed  in  their  theology, 
but  in  their  theological  disputations,  which 
swallowed  up  the  energies  better  devoted  to 
practical  piety  by  those  whom  they  assailed. 
Fortunately  "Wesley  set  the  good  example  of 
taking  little  part  in  the  disputations  that  raged, 
and  that  part  was  based  solely  on  the  supposed 
connection  between  the  extreme  Calvinism  of 
some  and  the  moral  looseness  that  early  began 
to  mark  the  societies  founded  by  the  Methodist 
workers.  His  remarks  (1770)  were  followed  by 
the  unhappy  division  that  greatly  weakened  the 
religious  influence  of  the  revival. 

Nor  'was  the  success  of  the  movement  to  be 
traced  to  even  the  proper  emphasis  upon  ac- 
cepted truths.  The  great  religious  experiences 
that  had  constant  emphasis  were  also  mingled 
with  appeals  that,  now  at  least,  even  the  most 
evangelical  teachers  do  not  make.  Physical  ^\ 
terrors  and  physical  joys  play  not  a  small  part 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  51 

in  the  appeals  of  the  early  days,  and  inferences 
might  be  legitimately  drawn  from  much  of  the 
preaching  that  would  result  in  the  identification 
of  the  feelings  with  the  will. 

The  fact  that  William  Law  was  the  inspira- 
tion to  the  Methodist  movement,  and  remained 
so  long  its  guide  and  friend,  points  plainly  to  the 
fact  that  the  evangelical  revival  was  practical  and 
neither  theological  nor  ritualistic.  Never  did 
any  man  have  a  more  nebulous  theology,  never 
did  any  man  less  understand  the  historical 
ritual  development  of  the  Established  Church. 

Wesley  was  himself  impatient  of  opinions. 
"I  found  him,"  he  writes  of  a  Calvinistic  op- 
ponent, "rigorously  tenacious  of  the  uncondi- 
tional decrees.  O  that  opinions  should  sepa- 
rate chief  friends !  This  is  bigotry  all  over.  "  * 
And  again  he  writes,  and  the  passage  is  a  very 
significant  one,  "  I  would  wish  all  to  observe, 
that  the  points  in  question  between  us  and 
either  the  German  or  the  English  antinomians 
are  not  points  of  opinion,  but  of  practice  [italics 
ours].  We  break  with  no  man  for  his  opinion. 
We  think  and  let  think."  f  That  this  seems 
often  to  have  been  held  rather  as  a  counsel  of 
perfection  was  due  to  Wesley's  imperious  tem- 
per and  the  unfortunate  spirit  of  the  times. 

*  Journal,  April.  1746. 

f  Ibid.,  May,  1745,  Vol.  I.,  p.  336. 


52        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

But  nothing  needs  more  emphasis  at  the  very 
outset  of  our  inquiry  into  the  character  of  the 
religious  revival  than  the  fact  that  its  signifi- 
cance was  not  theological. 

The  little  Methodist  group  never  agreed  on 
"their  theology.  Gambold  was  Moravian  to 
the  end  of  his  days,  and  Wesley  thought  that 
he  hid  his  light  there  under  a  bushel.  Ingham 
founded  his  own  sect  based  upon  some  half- 
understood  dogmas  he  gained  from  Sandeman 
and  Glass,  two  Scotchmen  whom  the  Established 
Church  of  Scotland  had  expelled.  John  Clay- 
ton began  as  a  High  Church  ritualist  and  never 
changed  his  views.  Whitefield  was  Calvinist, 
as  he  understood  the  term,  to  the  last. 

Nor  was  its  organization  the  reason  of  its 
strength  and  sweep. 

If  we  find  the  origin  of  the  theology  in  the 
thinking  of  the  day,  so  also  the  organization  of 
the  movement  was  loose,  unpremeditated,  and  in 
many  ways  far  short  of  ideal,  and  sprang  from 
its  immediate  circumstances.  'The  organiza- 
tions that  sprang  up  out  of  the  revival  may  have 
been,  indeed  certainly  were,  needed  to  preserve 
its  fruit.  They  were  evils,  though  less  evils  than 
would  have  been  the  .leaving  of  the  gathered 
flocks  unshepherded.  The  Moravians  brought 
from  Germany  the  idea  of  a  Church  within  the 
Church  for  its  salvation.  John  Wesley  accepted 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  53 

this  in  the  main,  but  with  no  clear  idea  of  what 
it  would  lead  to. )  Charles  had  misgivings,  and 
Samuel  objected,  but  true  to  the  energetic,  yet 
practical  character  that  gave  John  Wesley  power, 
he  never  faced  the  real  issue,  and  even  when  or- 
daining and  establishing  a  church  in  America 
he  clung  to  the  old  Moravian  idea  in  England. 
His  classes  and  financial  plans  grew  out  of  the 
experiences  of  his  work,  not  out  of  his  theories 
or  his  ideals  of  organization.  Nor  was  it  much 
otherwise  with  the  "connections"  and  the 
chapels.  Only  the  law  compelled  them  to  face 
the  question  of  whether  they  were  within  the 
Established  Church  or  not.  It  is  useless  to 
consider  the  question  of  what  other  steps  the 
new  movement  might  have  taken  than  that 
of  founding  chapels  and  starting  schools  and 
laying  the  foundations  for  elaborate  future  or- 
ganizations. As  a  matter  of  fact  these  things 
were  forced  upon  them  by  the  hostility  or  in- 
ertness of  the  existing  religious  organizations. 
Nonconformity  was  as  hostile  to  the  new  life  as 
the  Established  Church.  And  as  for  Quakers, 
Wesley  speaks  constantly  of  them  as  the  com- 
panions in  his  mind  of  infidels  and  "  Papists.," 
By  the  time  Wesley  had  grown  old  and  to  him  ; 
and  the  better  class  among  his  followers  all 
churches  were  open,  the  divisions  were  too 
great,  the  lack  of  sympathy  had  done  its  work 


54       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

too  effectively  for  the  newer  organizations  to  ever 
surrender  their  place  and  be  absorbed  by  the 
parent  bodies  whose  hostility  had  necessitated 
their  formation.  But  these  organizations  were 
great  elements  of  weakness  ;  their  quarrels,  dis- 
pu tings,  and  expense  cost  the  movement  some 
of  its  best  life,  and  soon  Dissent  and  the  Estab- 
lishment, from  their  vantage  points  of  history 
and  continuity,  not  only  easily  were  able  to  hold 
their  own  against  the  newer  organizations,  but 
even  to  successfully  resist,  and,  in  some  in- 
stances, to  absorb  them. 

The  older  organizations  compelled  the  newer 
ones  gradually  to  modify  their  methods  in  many 
instances  most  materially.  The  spirit  of  inde- 
pendent organization,  however,  had  a  wide  in- 
direct influence,  and,  later  on,  was  of  important 
social  significance  through  the  training  it  gave 
many  for  future  political  action.  At  the  same 
time  no  one  can  ever  hope  to  revive  the  enthu- 
siasm that  made  all  things  new  in  England  by 
simply  returning  to  these  forms  of  organization, 
however  useful  in  the  past.  The  power  of  the 
organization  was  the  new  life  of  which  they 
were  the  imperfect  signs,  and  in  no  way  were 
they  the  causes  of  the  revitalizing  of  England. 
!  This  may  be  seen  in  the  history  of  the  evan- 
gelical party  which  remained  within  the  older 
lines,  and  did  its  work  in  large  measure  on  en- 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  55 

tirely  a  different  plan.  The  religious  move- 
ment was  essentially  different  from  a  simple  re- 
vival of  traditions,  either  of  doctrine  or  ritual. 
It  was  far  more  than  a  "  return "  to  past  suc- 
cesses in  either  field. 

The  spiritual  quickening  that  took  form  in  the 
Tractarian  movement  cannot  be  considered  here, 
but  it  is  enough  to  point  ou-t  that  the  High 
Church  ritualism  was  nearly  all  present  in  the 
Church  as  an  active  force  when  the  evangeli- 
calism against  which  the  Tract ariaus  protested 
was  having  the  largest  spiritual  power  over  the 
Church.  But  it  did  not  then  make  headway  as 
it  did  later  against  the  simpler  form. 

The  essence  of  the  revival  was  therefore  not  a 
set  of  opinions  nor  a  system  of  theology,  nor  yet 
some  special  type  of  churchly  organization  or 
ecclesiastical  government,  nor  was  it  a  reversion 
to  older  ritual  and  past  authority. 

Of  course,  all  the  leaders  thought  their  suc- 
cess depended  upon  the  particular  thing  they 
emphasized.  Whitefield  considered  his  poor 
edition  of  Calvinism  essential,  and  yet  Wesley 
did  as  large  a  work  with  his  Arminianism. 
Count  Zinzendorf  regarded  the  ecclesiastical 
ritual  he  had  carefully  invented  as  essential  to 
the  missionary  success  it  in  truth  rather  hin- 
dered than  helped.  Much  of  the  weakness  and 
of  the  unnecessary  opposition  discovered  in  the 


56       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

early  stages  can  be  traced  to  these  misjudg- 
ments.  The  Methodists  came  to  parishes  where 
were  godly  men  alive  to  the  situation  in  Eng- 
land, but  who  found  themselves  treated  as  en- 
tirely outside  salvation  and  without  hope  in  the 
world.  This  tendency  became  even  more  marked 
after  the  wiser  leaders  were  away.  The  catch- 
words of  the  awakening,  some  true,  some  false, 
and  mostly  half  true  and  half  false,  became  the 
touchstone  on  which  the  metal  in  the  pulpit  was 
tried.  If  these  party  shibboleths  were  not  pro- 
nounced as  the  ears  of  the  new  movement  had 
grown  accustomed  to  hear  them  spoken,  then  at 
once  all  faith  in  the  speaker's  "evangelical 
soundness "  was  lost.  It  mattered  not  that 
many  of  these  phrases,  like  the  metal  coin  that 
sometimes  comes  into  our  hands,  had  lost  all 
real  semblance  to  the  image  first  set  forth.  These 
theological  and  religious  phrases  hardened  into 
a  most  narrow  and  offensive  type  of  scholasti- 
cism, so  that  severe  as  has  been  the.  treatment 
of  the  evangelical  movement  by  superficial  writ- 
ers yet  the  second  growth  of  evangelical  scholas- 
ticism certainly  deserved  much  of  the  condem- 
nation, f  Deeper  than  either  its  organizations 
with  innerent  defects  and  nnhistoric  traditions, 
mightier  than  either  its  theological  phrases  or 
its  religious  opinions,  ran  the  current  of  power 
on  which  English  society  floated  safely  past 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  57 

rocks  and  shoals  where  other  nations  floundered 
and  made  sad  shipwreck.  This  power  was  di- 
vine emphasis  upon  personal  piety  and  social 
salvation. 

This  fact  is  still  more  clearly  seen  when  one 
considers  the  history  of  the  Church  of  England 
after  the  awakening  had  really  touched  English 
life.  Out  of  the  loins  of  the  evangelical  revival 
sprang  schools  of  thought  so  entirely  different 
from  any  to  which  early  evangelicalism  was  ac- 
customed, that  it  did  not  and  could  not  recog- 
nize its  own  offspring.  Yet  historically  it  is 
easy  to  trace  the  bond  that  binds  together  all 
the  varied  phases  of  the  one  great  evangelical 
or  religious  movement.  Nor  will  we  here  at- 
tempt to  mark  the  common  lines  of  thought  that 
undoubtedly  did  run  through  all  the  discussion. 
Sin,  grace,  redemption,  and  the  world's  salva- 
tion formed  common  themes.  But  when  men 
came  to  the  matter  of  definition  then  the  schools 
went  far  apart.  Broad  Church  theology  laid  no 
such  emphasis  upon  inherited  guilt  as  did 
evangelicalism,  and  the  Oxford  men  differed 
completely  from  the  other  two  parties  in  the 
means  of  grace  and  the  results  of  redemption. 
The  Salvation  Army  represents  to-day  the  same 
restless  discontent  with  the  comparative  inactiv- 
ity of  Protestantism,  and  admirably  reproduces 
some  of  the  longings,  and  many  of  the  troubles 


58        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

that  formed  the  intense  and  storm-tossed  life  of 
the  early  evangelical  revival.  Its  interest  was 
in  no  degree  theological,  and  its  unchurchly  at- 
titude was  the  natural  reaction  from  the  recep- 
tion it  received  at  first  from  the  hands  of  the 
churches,  and  the  evidence  of  the  discontent 
that  first  sent  it  forth.  And  the  Chapel  was 
in  the  same  category  as  the  Church,  for  both 
represented  about  the  same  level  of  religious 
aspiration  and  spiritual  enthusiasm.  The  homes 
and  family  histories  of  those  who  have  brought 
the  Salvation  Army  to  its  present  position  and 
power,  connect  it  directly  with  the  two  wings 
of  the  evangelical  revival  that  may  be  conven- 
iently designated  the  Methodist  and  the  church- 
ly  evangelical  party,  and  admirably  illustrate 
the  earlier  movement.  The  organization  pre- 
sents as  little  that  is  novel  as  its  theology. 
The  uniforms  and  titles  are  but  other  manifesta- 
tions of  the  same  spirit  that  led  the  early  Metho- 
dists to  separate  themselves  from  "  the  world," 
by  conspicuous  plainness  of  dress,  and  by  a 
form  of  government  verging  on  despotism. 

It  was  characteristic  of  the  social  character 
of  the  Methodist  movement  that  its  leaders 
instinctively  turned  away  from  the  quietism 
that  corrupted  the  doctrine  of  the  Moravians  in 
England.  Wesley  broke  abruptly  from  them 
because  he  more  or  less  distinctly  felt  the  anti- 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  59 

social  character  of  such  teaching.  In  excessive 
emphasis  upon  salvation  by  faith  Moravian 
teachers  in  England  denounced  works  and  in- 
sisted upon  quiet  waiting  for  those  blessings 
which  Wesley  knew  came  only  with  active  ser- 
vice. At  the  time  he  quarrelled  with  his  old 
teacher  Law,  Wesley  was  utterly  unfit  to  hold 
his  own  in  controversy  with  him,  and  the  dis- 
pute as  it  comes  down  to  us  inspires  us  with 
great  respect  for  the  character  as  well  as  the  in- 
tellect of  Law.  At  the  same  time  Wesley  was 
again  instinctively  right.  Law's  mysticism  was 
of  the  contemplative  monastic  type,  against 
which  all  that  was  practical  and  religious  in 
Wesley  protested,  although  he  quite  wrongly 
made  doctrinal  statement  the  basis  of  his  pro- 
test. 

The  little  band  of  Oxford  Methodists  were 
united,  not  by  their  doctrines,  but  in  their  pray- 
ers, devotions,  and  practical  charity.  The  early 
scenes  at  the  debtor's  prison,  the  Bocardo,  a 
room  over  the  north  gate  of  Oxford  city,  the 
teaching  of  little  children  and  the  visits  to  the 
poor  at  the  Castle  mark  the  real  bond  of  fellow- 
ship that  unites  them  all  in  the  mind  of  the 
Christian  world  to-day  as  the  founders  of  a  new 
and  more  Christian  state  of  things  in  English 
religious  life. 

Ecclesiasticism  has  been  too  much  inclined  to 


60        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

compound  with  the  world,  and  in  exchange  for 
recognition  and  support  to  surrender  the  social 
life  to  politics  and  to  pleasure.  England's 
quarrel  with  Puritanism  was  renewed  with 
Methodism  because  both  claimed  the  whole 
life.  The  Methodists  flung  themselves  upon 
the  task  of  the  world's  salvation.  As  Luther 
felt  that  religious  education  was  of  first  impor- 
tance if  Germany  were  to  be  saved,  so  Wesley 
started  in  upon  the  social  salvation  of  England 
by  planting  schools.  Their  success  is  not  the 
question.  His  prudence  in  methods  may  be 
questioned,  but  the  light  his  schools  and  plans, 
his  constant  teaching,  his  school-books,  gram- 
mars, etc.,  throw  upon  the  fundamental  instincts 
of  the  movement  is  invaluable.  The  eagerness 
of  the  Methodists  to  read  transformed  illiterate 
communities  into  such  absorbers  of  literature 
that  publishing  houses  existed  solely  from  this 
demand. 

Grave  injustice  has  often  been  done  to  this 
side  of  Methodist  activity  because  of  the  com- 
parative illiteracy  of  so  many  of  the  Methodist 
preachers  in  the  beginning.  But  Wesley  him- 
self ever  encouraged  learning,  and  promoted  it 
in  every  way.  The  social  meaning  of  the 
Methodists'  constant  efforts  to  teach  reading  to 
all  that  they  could  reach  can  best  be  read  in 
the  history  of  national-school  education  in  Eng- 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  61 

land.  Ingliam  gathered  about  him  the  children 
of  the  villages  round  Oxford  to  teach  them  their 
letters.  Wesley,  the  learned  fellow  of  Lincoln, 
spent  hours  instructing  ignorant  prisoners  and 
unfortunate  poor  in  the  humble  art  of  English 
spelling. 

Of  course  the  Methodists  were  accused  of 
Communism  and  assailed  as  agitators.  The 
Yorkshire  riots  of  1740  were  charged  to  the  ac- 
count of  Ingham,  and  Wesley  himself  was  often 
accused  of  lawless  agitation.  The  truth  was 
that  the  preaching  of  the  Methodists  spared  no 
class.  When  Boswell  spoke  of  preaching  and 
the  success  "which  those  called  Methodists 
have "  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  said :  "  Sir,  it  is 
owing  to  their  expressing  themselves  in  a  plain 
and  familiar  manner,  which  is  the  only  way 
to  do  good  to  the  common  people,  and  which 
clergymen  of  genius  and  learning  ought  to  do 
from  a  principle  of  duty,  when  it  is  suited  to 
their  congregation.*  Johnson,  Tory  and  High 
Church  man  as  he  was,  had  always  a  good  word 
for  both  Wesley  and  the  Methodists. 

The  visiting  of  prisons  could  only  bear  the 
fruit  it  afterward  did,  in  planting  sympathies 
for  the  oppressed  that  drew  men  to  consider 
fundamental  problems  in  connection  with  the 
whole  prison  system.  All  such  work  began 
*  Boswell's  Life,  Malone's  Edition,  pp.  126-127. 


62        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

from  the  longing  to  be  of  social  service  for 
Christ's  sake,  to  live  Christ's  redemptive  life, 
and  to  obey  Him.  The  academic  exclusiveness 
of  a  university  aristocracy  formed  no  obstacle 
to  the  Methodist  brotherhood  mingling  with 
the  people,  and  bringing  to  them  of  their  own 
stores. 

The  profoundly  democratic  character  of  the 
movement  was  to  a  large  degree  forced  on  the 
Methodists.  They  had  access  to  all  classes. 
Ingham  married  the  daughter  of  the  Earl  of 
Huntingdon,  and  the  fellows  of  Oxford  had  all 
society  open  to  them.  But  the  needs  of  Eng- 
land pressed  upon  them,  and  one  of  the  remark- 
able features  of  Wesley's  life  is  the  utter  ab- 
sence of  any  note  of  class  distinction.  It  is 
generally  impossible  to  tell  from  his  records 
with  what  class  he  was  dealing.  Men  were  to 
him  "  souls,"  whether  in  Fetter  Lane  or  in  king's 
palaces.  No  man  was  more  respectful  to  au- 
thority, no  man  more  absolutely  independent 
in  his  thinking  and  conduct.  Nor  wras  this 
characteristic  of  Wesley  only.  The  old  Puri- 
tan self-respect  was  reawakened  in  the  great 
middle  and  trading  classes.  Manhood  was  ap- 
pealed to  in  terms  of  Christian  demands  for  holi- 
ness and  self-sacrifice.  The  foundation  for  the 
coming  democracy  was  laid  by  appeals  to  the 
highest  in  man.  There  was  no  accommodation 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  63 

of  the  message  to  the  supposed  incapacity  of  any 
class  to  know  and  do  its  whole  duty.  The  fatal 
mistake  of  the  Koman  type  of  Christianity,  that 
of  setting  up  of  degrees  of  Christian  perfection 
from  which  some  are  excluded  by  circumstance, 
was  happily  avoided,  rather  by  the  practical 
common-sense  of  the  leaders  than  of  fixed  pur- 
pose or  deliberate  weighing  of  its  errors.  This 
entire  consecration  of  the  whole  body  of  Chris- 
tians to  be  a  holy  priesthood  was  one  of  the 
precious  lessons  the  Methodists  learned  from  the 
Moravians  and  never  forgot.  It  banished  from 
the  religious  world  of  that  day  the  pernicious 
habit  of  alms-giving  for  the  sake  of  alms-giving 
as  of  soul  saving  value  irrespective  of  the  effect 
on  the  receiver.  This  had  tainted  the  activity 
of  the  early  brotherhood,  but  was  slain  by  the 
consecrated  common-sense  of  the  movement  as 
it  matured. 

The  brothers  Wesley  started  even  on  their  first 
missionary  journey  "  to  save  their  souls."  From 
the  Moravians  they  learned  that  their  souls 
were  saved  and  their  sins  forgiven,  and  that 
missions  were  the  fruit  and  not  the  root  of  the 
forgiven  life.  Human  life  came  to  have  value 
for  them  as  human  life.  The  democracy  of  the 
Methodist  movement  was  no  philosophical  struct- 
ure built  upon  exceedingly  doubtful  "  rights  of 
man."  It  was  a  democracy  founded  upon  the 


64:       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

most  eternal  possibility  before  every  man.  The 
poor  wretch  condemned  to  the  gallows  could 
go  into  the  presence  of  the  eternal  judge  as  a 
conqueror  and  more  than  conqueror  through 
Him  that  had  loved  him,  or  he  could  go  to  his 
own  place.  It  raised  up  a  "  serious  "  democracy, 
a  self-respecting  and  other-self-respecting  de- 
mocracy. 

Whatever  may  be  the  advantages  of  a  cen- 
tralized government,  and  there  are  many,  the 
educative  value  of  self-government  has  in  im- 
perialism no  equivalent.  The  strong  hierarchi- 
cal system  stands  certain  strains  under  which 
more  democratic  forms  show  to  great  dis- 
advantage. The  hierarchy  of  Home  as  an  invad- 
ing and  conquering  force  amid  the  barbarism  of 
the  north  was  at  its  very  best.  In  England  the 
established  hierarchy  had  done  excellent  ser- 
vice. But  it  had  failed,  as  the  Koman  hier- 
archy had  failed,  to  educate  its  own  citizens. 
The  appearance  of  Methodism  was  the  signal 
for  the  outbreak  of  forces  the  founders  of 
Methodism  never  calculated  upon.  The  chapels 
became  centres  of  churchly  self-control  with  all 
the  weakness  of  such  control,  but  also  with  all 
the  promise  and  potency  of  education  to  a  far 
higher  self-control  than  any  centralized  govern- 
ment can  give. 

The    social  significance  of   the  building  of 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  65 

chapels  by  spontaneous  impulse  all  over  Eng- 
land, apart  from  all  state  aid,  indeed  for  the 
most  part  out  of  local  and  exceedingly  limited 
resources,  forms  no  unworthy  theme  for  med- 
itation. There  was  no  separation  from  the 
State  Church.  But  the  lessons  of  self-control, 
self-discipline,  and  self-government  had  to  be 
learned  outside  of  its  institutions,  and  the  Meth- 
odist chapels  sprang  up  to  give  the  centres  of 
that  kind  of  work. 

The  great  unconscious,  unorganized  life  of 
England  received  new  impulses,  new  hopes,  new 
fears,  new  sense  of  responsibility  and  new 
though  untried  powers. 

The  modern  spirit  recoils  somewhat  from  the 
fierce  controversy  that  marks  much  of  the 
chapel  life,  more  particularly  in  its  Calvinistic 
section.  Minute  and  seemingly  unimportant 
questions  gave  rise  to  endless  dispute.  It  must, 
however,  be  remembered  that  fierce  wrestlings 
over  questions  that  are  even  thought  to  rep- 
resent realities  have  a  very  different  educa- 
tional value  from  lifeless  scholastic  disputation. 
Scholasticism  was  once  alive.  Its  issues  were 
once  thought  to  be  matters  of  life  and  death. 
So  long  as  this  was  so  they  trained  great  minds 
for  coming  conflicts  and  made  the  way  for  the 
renaissance.  Sophism  and  scholastic  disputa- 
tions become  utterly  deadly  only  when  they  are 


66       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

felt  to  be  not  about  realities  but  about  words 
and  phrases. 

The  educational  value  of  the  Chapel  disputa- 
tions was  further  heightened  by  the  restoration 
to  men's  life  of  the  great  source  of  religious  and 
literary  inspiration.  The  English  Bible  became 
again  the  hand-book  of  thousands.  The  journal 
of  John  Nelson  the  stone-mason  would  put  to 
shame  the  style  of  many  a  skilful  high-priced 
newspaper  correspondent  by  its  infinite  supe- 
riority in  simplicity  and  directness. 

"If  you  want  to  know  anything,"  said  Dr. 
Johnson,  "  go  and  teach  it !  "  The  lay  ministry 
raised  up  hundreds  of  men  so  intensely  in  earn- 
est that  they  became  educated  men  before  their 
ministry  was  nearly  over.  They  perhaps  lacked 
varied  culture ;  but  they  had  that  which  uni- 
versities too  often  failed  to  impart,  command 
over  their  words  for  making  them  do  their  work, 
and  an  earnest  purpose  that  gave  force  to  their 
words.  These  men  faced  real  and  living  issues, 
they  wrestled  with  the  deepest  problems  of 
human  existence.  Whatever  may  be  the  value 
of  their  intellectual  conclusions,  and  we  do  not 
overrate  these,  the  educational  value  of  their 
striving  cannot  be  overrated.  "With  nothing  like 
the  educational  facilities  of  the  continental  na- 
tions and  no  greater  intelligence,  so  far  as  it 
is  possible  to  judge,  these  Methodist  working- 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  67 

men  sprang,  by  dint  of  conscience  and  mental 
power,  into  the  forefront  of  the  great  world's 
international  battle.  What  part  the  chapel 
played  in  preparing  the  English  workingman's 
mind  for  that  struggle  can  only  be  a  matter  of 
opinion,  but  in  our  judgment  it  was  a  chief 
factor,  though  a  neglected  factor,  in  the  exciting 
story  of  England's  industrial  development. 

Nor  was  the  intellectual  gain  by  any  means 
the  most  important,  even  putting  aside  the 
moral  training.  There  was  indeed  in  English 
life  a  lack  of  refinement  noted  by  all  observ- 
ers of  the  time.  Horace  Walpole  noticed  it 
even  in  his  days,  and  Arthur  Young  made  the 
same  observation.  France  has  far  exceeded 
England  in  the  amenities  of  life.  The  rough 
horse-play  of  the  English  lower  classes  is  still 
remarked  by  foreign  writers  who  comment  upon 
English  manners.  But  the  chapel  did  much  to 
soften  and  refine.  The  whole  tone  of  English 
literature  was  transformed.  The  hymns  of 
Watts,  Charles  Wesley,  Clayton,  John  Wesley 
and  many  others  were  sung  in  the  streets  of  the 
growing  towns  and  hummed  by  rough  carters 
as  they  plied  their  trade  along  the  great  high- 
ways of  commerce.  Beading  was  almost  de- 
manded of  one  who  claimed  to  have  been  con- 
verted, that  the  Bible  might  be  read;  and  so 
reading  became  occupation  and  filled  days  and 


68       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

hours  otherwise  given  to  rude  sports  or  still 
ruder  pleasures.  In  imitation  of  the  Oxford 
Methodists,  class  leaders  became  teachers,  and 
taught  and  learned,  refined  and  acquired  a  re- 
finement, that  was  as  much  refinement  in  spirits 
as  refinement  in  outward  manners.  What  that 
refinement  is  anyone  can  see  for  himself  by 
going  to  Scotland,  where  these  same  influences 
have  produced  the  tenderness  and  depth  the 
"Kailyard  School"  delight  in  portraying  for 
us. 

Wesley,  in  his  journal  (March,  1743),  tells  of 
his  reproving  a  man  for  swearing  in  such  a 
tactful  way  that  the  man  actually  longed  to  go 
and  hear  him  preach,  "only  he  was  afraid  he 
should  say  something  against  fighting  of  cocks." 
Bull-baiting  gradually  disappeared  even  before 
it  was  forbidden  by  law.  The  rough  and  brutal 
sports  made  way  for  better  things.  The  second- 
growth  Puritan  spirit  perhaps  revived  and  went 
too  far,  but  when  we  find  what  the  character  of 
the  plays  on  the  stage  was  at  this  time,  there  is 
little  wonder  that  a  "serious"  generation  came 
to  regard  all  theatres  as  wicked  and  in  them- 
selves wrong. 

Moreover  Methodism  was  kept  most  provi- 
dentially from  complete  separation  from  the 
Established  Church,  and  so  there  was  kept  up  a 
vital  connection  between  the  new  teacher  of  the 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  69 

people  and  the  old  instructress,  never  wholly 
unfaithful,  even  in  her  worst  periods,  to  the 
sacred  charge.  The  new  religious  democracy 
was  to  modify,  as  well  as  to  be  trained  by,  the 
important  traditions  that  cluster  about  the 
National  church.  Over  the  lapse  of  years  the 
Methodist  congregations  were  led  by  these 
associations  to  link  the  glory  of  the  Puritan 
past  with  their  own  earnest  longings  and 
national  religious  aspirations.  There  was 
deepened  in  the  national  mind  the  sense  of 
national  unity.  The  Hanoverian  house  had 
never  taken  the  place  in  the  popular  life  and 
heart  that  the  house  of  Stuart  had  so  fearfully 
abused.  Now  national  feeling  had  to  take  the 
place  of  blind  loyalty  to  a  king.  The  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century  saw  the  democracy  of 
England  in  unbroken  unity  striving  for  what  it 
considered  national  honor  and  national  safety. 

To  church  and  chapel  was  committed  wholly 
the  training  of  the  children  of  the  poor ;  and 
that  training  was,  no  doubt,  technically  fearfully 
defective.  But  Methodism  breathed  into  the 
task  a  spirit  of  consecration  and  a  genuine  ear- 
nest piety  that  left  its  stamp  on  English  charac- 
ter as  deeply  as  did  the  old  Puritan  training 
that  made  England  not  afraid  to  speak  with 
the  enemy  in  the  gate. 

That  training  was    broadened    out    by  the 


70        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

missionary  interest  that  was  now  freely  awa- 
kened. Bough  Yorkshire  laboring  men  heard 
for  the  first  time  from  their  Moravian  teachers 
of  the  West  Indian  colonies,  where  two  of  their 
brethren  had  sold  themselves  into  slavery  for 
the  redeeming  of  men's  souls  from  bondage. 
They  learned  about  Georgia  and  Greenland, 
about  India  and  the  distant  plantations  of 
Ceylon,  where  men  were  doing  and  dying  for 
Christ  and  His  cross.  The  average  English 
workingman  to-day  knows  where  the  Soudan  is 
only  because  the  triumphant  flag  of  conquest 
has  gone  there.  In  the  days  of  Whiten" eld  thou- 
sands listened  as  he  pleaded  for  the  colonies 
and  plantations  across  the  stormy  seas,  where 
the  banner  of  a  better  battle  was  planted  by  the 
little  chapel  congregations  that  hung  upon  his 
lips.  As  in  the  old  Spanish  days  the  mission- 
aries were  often  the  forerunners  of  the  mighty 
army  of  conquest,  so  now  the  humble  mis- 
sionary from  the  Moravian  society  or  the  Cal- 
vinistic  connection  heralded  the  approach  of 
English  commercial  conquest.  The  social  sig- 
nificance of  this  feature  of  the  chapel  training 
is  too  easily  passed  over.  The  insular  mind 
needed  awakening  and  needed  contact  with 
the  wider  -world,  and  there  could  be  no  more 
wholesome  contact  than  this  humble,  prayerful, 
yearning  interest  in  the  far-off  brethren  whom 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  71 

they  sent  as  their  messengers  of  peace.  For 
missionary  interest  was  in  those  days  'no  im- 
personal abstract  interest  evidenced  by  stated 
contributions  to  some  board.  It  was  the  per- 
sonal sending  and  personal  support  of  men  the 
chapel  worshippers  knew,  and  their  interest 
was  sustained  by  the  personal  appeals  and 
accounts  of  labors  undergone  in  far-off  places. 
"VVe  are  only  interested  at  present  in  the  social 
significancy  of  all  this,  as  it  helped  to  build 
up  that  democracy  that  was  to  more  and  more 
take  the  helm  of  a  vast  empire  into  its  own 
hands  and  guide  for  weal  or  woe  the  ship  of 
state. 

The  Methodist  class-meeting  idea  was  bor- 
rowed from  the  Moravians  in  large  part,  though 
modified  by  the  experiences  of  the  Methodist 
band  at  Oxford  and  by  Wesley's  own  exceed- 
ingly good  organizing  sense.  It  developed  the 
spirit  of  social  watchfulness,  and  the  profound 
sense  of  personal  responsibility  to  God  for  one's 
neighbor.  Men  became  their  brethren's  keep- 
ers. Of  course  it  had  its  defects  and  disad- 
vantages ;  yet  at  a  time  when  English  society 
was  being  torn  apart  by  many  influences,  when 
changes  of  a  most  momentous  character  were 
taking  place  in  industrial  England,  that  just  in 
those  places  new  social  bonds  of  a  most  real  and 
tender  personal  character  should  bind  again  the 


72       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

fragments  of  society  was  a  providence  of  pecul- 
iar significance. 

Any  social  bond  has  power.  But  its  power  is 
in  proportion  to  the  common  interest  and  depth 
of  common  sympathy.  Men  brought  together 
by  the  accidents  of  trade  and  common  life  are 
often  as  widely  separated  by  their  different 
ambitions  and  rivalries.  Political  bonds  depend 
on  the  strength  and  purity  of  the  political  pas- 
sions that  formed  them.  They  may  be  exceed- 
ingly lasting  or  may  be  weakened  by  political 
selfishness  and  degraded  by  illegitimate  methods. 
In  ecclesiastical  bonds,  tradition,  prejudices, 
family  circumstances,  social  convenience  or 
ambition  may  now  play  so  large  a  part  that  they 
mean  but  little  under  most  circumstances  as  a 
social  force.  It  was  not  so  in  the  early  Metho- 
dist class-meeting.  Stormy  persecution  and 
relentless  laughter  kept  them  free  from  much 
that  weakens  church  life  to-day.  The  questions 
were  tremendous  realities  to  those  who  met. 
The  leaders  were  separated  by  no  ecclesiastical 
ambitions  from  the  life  of  the  flock  they  cared 
for.  The  intellectual  struggles  and  sympathies 
were  common  bonds ;  the  religious  aspirations 
common  ideals ;  the  prayers,  devotions,  and 
discipline  a  common  inspiration  to  hundreds 
who  thus  in  the  seething  changes  taking  place 
during  the  industrial  revolution  found  strength 


THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  73 

and  guidance  and  divine  life  in  human  fellow- 
ship. 

The  practical  character  of  the  Methodist 
movement  was  ever  most  marked.  Alms-giving 
was  accounted  indeed  a  virtue,  but  happily 
more  real  help  was  all  that  was  in  the  power  of 
most  of  the  Methodist  societies.  The  ecclesi- 
astical revival  that  just  started  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Anne  had  initiated,  indeed,  many  char- 
ities, and  England  had  at  no  time  been  behind 
in  a  good  deal  of  miscellaneous  charity.  What 
was  needed  after  the  Georgian  lethargy  was  the 
personal  touch,  the  intimate  intertwining  of 
human  life.  The  class-meeting  gave  just  this 
needed  feature  to  the  charity  of  England.  The 
parochial  system  was  breaking  down  under  the 
extension  of  the  town  and  city.  The  Tory  squire 
and  Oxford  parson  were  generally  rudely  just 
and  good-natured,  if  we  can  trust  the  testimony 
of  contemporary  literature.  But  they  ruled  from 
above,  and  understood  as  little  as  they  often  do 
now  the  real  life  they  were  set  to  guide.  The 
Methodist  class-meeting  leader  and  the  village 
evangelist  knew  exactly  with  what  they  had  to 
deal.  They  reached  around,  and  not  down. 
They  played  upon  familiar  strings,  and  awoke 
melodies  less  homely  hands  could  never  have 
enticed  from  the  rude  instruments,  capable  of 
so  much,  but  so  little  understood. 


74        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Methodism  thus  gained  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
It  became  a  social  factor  of  first  significance. 
It  changed  directly  and  indirectly  the  whole 
face  of  English  communal  life,  and  lifted  into 
new  light  mighty  problems  with  which  England 
had  soon  to  occupy  herself. 

The  complicated  tapestry  of  human  life  is 
made  up  of  many  threads  and  many  colors. 
National  history  has  many  factors.  Into  Eng- 
land's life  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
had  entered  threads  dyed  blood  red  from  the 
field  of  battle.  Commerce,  trade,  art,  literature, 
industrial  conditions,  personal  and  communal 
achievements  of  many  kinds  had  entered  as  fac- 
tors into  the  social  state  of  George  Ill's  reign 
as  he  conducted  England  out  of  one  century 
into  another.  But  probably  no  factor,  nay  no 
four  or  five  factors  together,  may  be  said  to 
have  had  the  same  social  significance  for  the 
future  of  England's  empire  as  the  Methodist 
phase  of  the  Evangelical  BevivaL 


LECTUEE  III. 

ENGLAND'S  CONDITION  AND  THE  RISE   OF  THE 
EVANGELICAL  PARTY 

WELL  was  it  for  England  that  the  religious 
awakening  had  preceded  some  of  the  great 
changes  that  England  was  now  to  see.  The 
hymns  of  Watts  and  Charles  Wesley  were  be- 
ginning to  pervade  the  land  like  the  murmur- 
ings  of  the  brooks  as  winter  breaks  and  sum- 
mer comes.  In  the  humble  cottage  and  in  the 
ancestral  home  alike  the  rousing  appeals  of 
Doddridge,  John  Wesley,  Law,  and  Whitefield 
found  an  entrance.  Dissent  was  melting  in  the 
common  fervor  and  losing  its  too  purely  intel- 
lectual character.  The  establishment  was  hon- 
ey-combed by  the  Methodist  movement  in  one 
or  other  of  its  phases.  Newton  led  the  Calvin- 
istic  section,  and  the  so-called  Olney  hymns 
were  ringing  in  the  ears  of  curates  and  bishops 
alike. 

In  1789  Hannah  More  was  able  to  say,  in  ad- 
dressing herself  to  The  Religion  of  the  Fash- 
ionable World,*  "  It  is  with  the  liveliest  joy  I 

*  Works,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  124,  London,  1818. 
73 


, 


76       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

acknowledge  the  delightful  truth.  Liberality 
flows  with  a  full  tide  through  a  thousand  chan- 
nels. There  is  scarcely  a  newspaper  but  rec- 
ords some  meeting  of  men  of  fortune  for  the 
most  salutary  purpose.  The  noble  and  numer- 
ous structures  for  the  relief  of  distress,  which 
are  the  ornament  and  glory  of  our  metropolis, 
proclaim  a  species  of  munificence  unknown  to 
former  ages."  And  in  reference  to  the  changed 
attitude  of  all  classes  toward  religions  he  says, 
"Still  allowing,  what  has  been  granted,  that 
absolute  infidelity  is  not  the  reigning  evil,  and 
that  servants  will  perhaps  be  more  likely  to  see 
religion  neglected  than  to  have  it  ridiculed."  * 

And  this  happened  in  spite  of  the  most  tre- 
mendous strain  upon  English  life  and  charac- 
ter. The  agricultural  revolution  had  greatly 
disarranged  the  rural  population.  But  now  the 
romance  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  being 
opened.  The  industrial  life  had  been  quick- 
ened by  the  French  emigration.  The  spinning 
jenny  in  1764-69  had  changed  greatly  the  con- 
ditions governing  the  production  of  yarn.  The 
woods  of  England  were  disappearing  under  the 
operations  of  the  enclosure  acts,  and  the  de- 
mand for  charcoal  for  smelting.  As  the  supply 
grew  scarce,  "  coke,"  an  invention  of  one  Dar- 
by, began  to  be  used.  But  in  1746  or  there- 
*  Tracts  and  Essays,  p.  91,  London,  1818;  Works,  VoL  VI. 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  77 

abouts  coal  was  being  used  freely,  and  the 
mining  of  it  greatly  increased.  Watt  made  a 
success  at  last  of  his  steam-engine  in  1756-76> 
and  in  1777  writes  of  one  he  had  set  up  at 
Choosewater,  "  the  velocity,  violence,  magni- 
tude, and  horrible  noise  of  the  engine  give  uni- 
versal satisfaction  to  all  beholders."  *  From  this 
on  the  steam-engine  became  the  real  power  in 
the  land.  Coal-gas  was  introduced  by  an  as- 
sistant of  Watt's,  named  Murdock,  in  1803. 
Meantime  the  power-loom  of  Cartwright  had 
been  brought  to  comparative  perfection,  and 
riots  were  taking  place  among  the  wretched 
hand-workers  hopelessly  displaced,  and  reduced 
in  many  cases  to  the  most  fearful  suffering. 

The  political  lethargy  was  broken.  The  de- 
mocracy had  found  a  voice,  or  rather  voices. 
For  Pitt,  Burke,  and  Fox,  unlike  in  so  many 
respects,  and  so  often  in  actual  opposition,  yet 
represented  different  sides  of  a  common  aspira- 
tion. 

The  greatest  strain,  however,  came  from  the 
sympathetic  disturbance  of  the  French  Kevolu- 
tion.  The  discontented  and  really  suffering 
population  that  machinery  had  displaced  and 
ruined  was  in  a  condition  to  easily  catch  the 
spirit  of  revolt,  triumphant  and  audacious, 
which  was  spreading  everywhere.  Not  in  vain 

*  Quoted  in  Social  England,  Vol.  V.,  p.  463. 


78       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

did  the  voices  of  the  nation's  leaders  appeal  to 
the  multitude  for  peace.  And  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  religious  spirit  kindled  in  Eng- 
land saved  the  democracy  from  that  violence 
which  would  sooner  or  later  have  brought  on 
the  reaction  that  on  the  continent  led  directly 
to  despotisms  more  or  less  thinly  disguised. 

Had  the  effect  of  this  religious  caste  given 
to  life  and  thought  been  simply  the  lulling  of 
the  democracy  to  quiet  content  with  existing 
conditions  this  effect  would  have  to  be  de- 
plored. But  this  was  not  the  case.  Eng- 
lish democracy  may  be  said  to  date  from  the 
revolution  of  1688,  when  definite  constitutional 
limits  were  set  forever  about  the  throne,  and 
"  divine  right  "  was  transferred  to  the  nation  as 
a  self-governing  body.  Yet  many  things  most 
anomalous  remained  and  even  now  remain. 
The  change  could  not  be  sudden  and  at  the 
same  time  wholesome.  All  classes  suffer  to- 
gether under  false  economic  conditions.  The 
pressing  need  was  a  body  of  men  from  all 
classes  with  faith  in  God,  love  for  man,  and  the 
fearlessness  to  face  all  difficulties  in  making 
God's  will,  as  they  understood  it,  the  supreme 
rule  of  life. 

The  Evangelical  Eevival  in  its  early  Method- 
ist phase  organized  and  softened  the  great  body, 
or  middle  and  lower  middle  classes.  It  did  not 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  79 

make  them  contented  either  with  themselves  or 
existing  conditions.  Personal  cleanliness,  neat- 
ness, and  cheerful  surroundings  became  ideals 
in  middle-class  English  life.  The  industrial 
conditions  that  began  to  make  these  impossible 
roused  righteous  wrath.  The  very  teaching  of 
the  pulpit  classed  sin,  death,  and  disease  to- 
gether, and  awoke  longings  for  a  nobler  and 
higher  life.  The  class-meeting  and  the  Sab- 
bath-school inculcated  higher  standards  of 
thought  and  action. 

At  the  same  time  this .  discontent  was  chas- 
tened. Evils  were  traced  to  their  moral  causes. 
Violence  was  shown  to  lead  but  to  violence. 
The  whole  atmosphere  was  made  sweeter  and 
more  kindly.  This  was  a  most  providential 
preparation  for  the  shock  that  was  soon  to 
come  in  the  French  Revolution.  The  unor- 
ganized industrial  life  of  England  presented 
frightful  pictures.  Already  in  1740  riots  had 
begun,  and  from  that  on  spasmodic  outbreaks  of 
the  starving  workingmen  whom  the  new  ma- 
chinery had  displaced  form  regular  parts  in  the 
annals  of  English  life.  The  sympathy  with 
France  was  wide  and  general  in  the  beginning 
of  the  sad  social  crisis.  The  touch  was  close  be- 
tween the  national  discontents.  It  needed  but 
little  to  start  in  England  the  violence  and  dis- 
organization that  became  epidemic  elsewhere. 


80       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Happily  for  England  the  Methodist  move- 
ment had  started  where  Christ  started,  with 
little  children ;  and  the  tempering  of  all  society 
by  religious  feeling  had  proceeded  far  before 
the  first  French  outbreak.  "Wesley's  own  school 
was  not  a  great  success.  He  expected  children 
to  rise  at  four  and  five  and  engage  in  an  hour's 
private  devotion  without  anything  to  eat,  and 
spend  the  whole  day  in  the  study  of  languages 
without  any  recreation.  But  the  success  of  his 
particular  scheme  was  not  the  main  question, 
but  the  plain  seeing  of  what  society  stood  in 
need  of,  and  the  attempt  to  meet  that  need. 

The  French  revolutionists  talked  glibly  about 
the  brotherhood  of  mankind,  and  offered  their 
armies  to  any  nation  that  took  up  arms  against 
its  rulers.  It  was  a  fortunate  thing  for  Eng- 
land that  a  better  gospel  of  universal  brother- 
hood was  being  proclaimed  in  the  English 
Moravian  missionaries'  activity,  and  in  the  sup- 
port given  to  Whitefield  and  his  following  in 
their  efforts  in  America. 

There  was  tremendous  social  significance  in 
the  profoundly  universal  character  of  the  Meth- 
odist movement.  To  Wesley  the  Indians  of 
North  America  and  the  men  and  women  he  saw 
on  his  journey  to  Herrnhut,  the  Spanish  Jews 
and  the  Italian  and  French  wanderers  in  Geor- 
gia, all  were  alike  his  brethren  and  sisters,  and 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  81 

for  their  sake  he  set  himself  with  most  extraor- 
dinary energy  to  master  enough  of  their  lan- 
guages to  preach  to  them  the  gospel  as  he  un- 
derstood it.  Missionary  effort  has  accustomed 
us  now  to  such  sense  of  universal  sympathy. 
Bat  there  were  at  that  time  no  missionary  ef- 
forts, and  long  after  this  early  time  Sydney 
Smith  could  jeer  unrebuked  at  the  "  consecrated  • 
cobblers,"  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Scotland  denounce  foreign  missions  as  a  most 
sacrilegious  interference  with  God's  plans.  No 
true  democracy  can  rest  on  any  national  plat- 
form. 

Wesley  was  imperious  in  his  temper,  but  no 
man  seems  ever  to  have  so  completely  forgotten 
in  his  work  all  the  external  things  to  which 
men  usually  attach  so  much  importance.  No 
man  was  ever  less  blinded  by  rank  and  fashion, 
or  kept  himself  so  completely  from  elation  in 
the  hours  of  success  and  applause.  Whitefield 
was  more  easily  thus  influenced.  This  was 
natural  in  a  way.  And  it  must  also  be  said  for 
Whitefield  that  though  rank  and  fashion  greatly 
impressed  him,  they  never  blinded  him  to  his 
mission  nor  drew  him  from  his  work.  He 
could  write  to  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon  in  a 
tone  of  servile  adulation  that  strikes  strangely 
on  our  ears.  But  he  never  left  his  missions  in 
America,  or  his  poor  colliers  in  England  to  give 
6 


82       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

himself  up  to  the  brilliant  circle  the  countess 
gathered  from  time  to  time  about  her  to  hear 
him  preach.  To  Lord  Chesterfield  and  Horace 
Mann,  to  the  wits  of  the  day  and  the  savants  of 
court  circles  Whitefield  preached  the  same  hon- 
est condemnation  of  sin  and  offered  the  same 
free  gift  of  grace.  The  movement  was  demo- 
cratic in  the  very  best  sense  of  that  word.  It 
was  touched  with  the  feeling  of  human  infirm- 
ity. It  pervaded  all  English  life  before  long, 
lifting  up  better  ideals  than  the  revolution  had 
provided,  and  appealing  to  all  classes  with  the 
same  warning  and  hope. 

It  did  not  deal  in  the  first  instance  with 
political  conditions  any  more  than  did  apostolic 
Christianity.  For  example  Wesley  seems 
scarcely  to  have  followed  the  political  questions 
of  his  day.  Save  such  a  matter  of  primary  im- 
portance as  the  attempt  of  the  pretender's  son 
in  1745  he  scarcely  mentions  in  his  journal  any 
of  the  events  of  political  character.  One  can 
scarcely  tell  from  him  whether  the  country  was 
at  peace  or  war.  But  social  conditions  inter- 
ested him  very  much.  The  poverty  of  the  peo- 
ple, the  character  of  their  crops,  the  conditions 
of  the  roads,  the  changing  of  population,  the 
dirty  and  ill-kept  state  of  the  towns ;  these 
things  he  saw  and  noted  in  his  diary. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  all  the  early  leaders, 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  83 

such  as  Howel  Harris  of  Wales,  Ingham,  and 
Whitefield.  Puritanism  was  early  forced  to 
take  on  a  political  character.  This  was  happily 
never  the  case  with  its  religious  successor  as 
such.  The  same  class  indeed  exhibited  politi- 
cal powers  of  a  high  order  in  both  movements, 
but  it  was  called  as  a  class  into  activity  under 
very  different  conditions  during  the  Puritan  and 
the  Evangelical  periods. 

The  class-meeting  laid  nevertheless  the  foun- 
dation for  political  organization  by  a  class  that 
had  had  no  such  training.  The  itinerant 
preachers  and  the  lay  exhorters  made  public 
speech  the  power  it  became  in  after  years. 
Eude  men  found  out  their  powers.  Classes 
came  to  organized  self-consciousness.  The  vast 
meetings  held  in  the  open  air  in  an  orderly 
manner  to  really  listen  to  men  seriously  address- 
ing themselves  to  live  realities,  was  just  what 
was  needed  to  make  men  ready  for  the  political 
popular  appeals  that  came  with  such  power  in 
the  wake  of  the  Methodist  movement.  The  hust- 
ings were  transformed  from  a  free  fight  with 
fists  and  stones  to  an  intellectual  struggle  before 
the  national  jury.  Thus  weapons,  leaders,  and 
popular  temper  were  prepared  for  the  political 
struggle  of  the  near  future.  Just  as  the  conven- 
ticle had  trained  men  for  public  duty  and  laid 
the  foundation  upon  which  the  town-meeting 


84       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

was  built  up  that  gave  the  world  its  first  mighty 
experiment  in  republican  government ;  so  now 
the  Methodist  meeting  and  the  mass  meeting 
by  the  roadside,  the  lay  speaker  and  the  relig- 
ious agitation,  were  the  providential  training 
for  the  new  social  struggles  yet  to  come.  The 
monster  political  meeting  is  usually  traced  to 
O'Connell,  but  he  only  adopted  what  Whitefield 
and  Wesley  had  made  popular. 

Long  before  the  reform  bill,  Pitt  had  this 
great  middle  class  in  mind,  for  they  became  a 
power  years  before  they  were  given  any  polit- 
ical recognition.  And  the  moment  they  re- 
ceived recognition  Methodist  miners  and  popu- 
lar leaders  trained  in  the  class-meeting  and  the 
chapel  stepped  into  Parliament  to  remain  factors 
in  the  nation's  councils  ever  since.  It  sobered 
the  nation  to  realize  that  wrongs  could  not  pass 
without  audible  protest.  It  sobered  the  oppress- 
or to  realize  that  he  must  defend  himself  be- 
fore an  informed  public  opinion ;  and  it  sobered 
the  oppressed  to  realize  that  they  had  a  court  of 
appeals  that  they  could  plead  before,  ere  they 
sprang  to  violence  and  brute  force. 

This  in  itself  was  of  no  small  social  signifi- 
cance during  the  strain  of  life  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  awful  violence  of  the 
French  Revolution  came  in  France  as  a  fearful 
shock  to  men's  minds.  The  natural  leaders  and 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  85 

spokesmen  of  the  French  people  had  been  most 
industriously  gotten  rid  of.  Any  aristocratic 
sympathizer  with  popular  discontent  was  chal- 
lenged as  a  traitor  to  his  class,  and  either  killed 
in  a  duel  or  driven  from  the  land.  The  people 
had  no  trained  leaders  accustomed  to  respon- 
sibility and  sobered  by  experience.  England 
happily  had  just  such  a  class,  and  as  she 
merged  from  her  political  lethargy  it  was  to 
find  herself  appealed  to  by  men  now  trained  to 
appeal  and  to  address  the  very  best  that  was  in 
their  fellow-men  on  behalf  of  their  fellow-men. 

One  of  the  striking  evidences  of  the  change 
in  the  tone  of  English  society  is  seen  in  the 
contrast  between  Pitt  and  Fox.  Fox  was  a  man 
of  splendid  capacity,  the  finest  speaker  in  the 
house,  and  a  daring  and  consistent  advocate  of 
the  democracy.  At  any  other  time  Fox  would 
have  become  the  idolized  tribune  of  the  people. 
But  this  he  never  really  was.  Nor  is  the  reason 
hard  to  find.  He  lacked  the  "  seriousness " 
that  was  now  in  demand.  He  was  a  far  better 
man  than  Walpole,  a  far  loftier  type  of  man  than 
Townshend,  but  it  was  Pitt  who  appealed  to  the 
new  and  rising  power,  and  was  supported  by 
those,  who,  for  exactly  the  same  reason,  stood 
by  Gladstone  in  our  own  day. 

Fox  championed  every  reform  measure,  and 
opposed  every  attempt  to  bind  men's  wrists 


86        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

again  with  the  chains  of  tyranny  during  the 
terror  of  the  French  Revolution.  But  the  fact 
that  neither  king  nor  people  understood  Fox,  is 
due  to  the  tremendous  change  that  had  passed 
over  English  life  since  Walpole.  Two  elements 
have  always  struggled  for  supremacy  in  Great 
Britain.  In  the  days  of  the  great  Revolution 
they  were  represented  by  Roundhead  and  Cava- 
lier. After  the  Restoration  it  seemed  as  if  the 
old  Puritan  seriousness  had  gone  out  of  life. 
Of  churchly  feeling  there  was  abundance,  but 
that  was  not  peculiar  to  the  Puritan.  This 
seriousness  was  recalled  to  influence  and  power 
by  the  Evangelical  awakening,  and  Fox  was  not 
serious.  In  contrast  to  the  almost  austere  self- 
contained,  and  haughty  Pitt,  Fox  would  have 
been  to  other  ages  of  English  history  a  most 
attractive  figure.  Unselfish  in  his  advocacy  of 
the  largest  development  of  democracy,  brave 
and  frank  in  his  public  positions,  he  yet  lacked 
the  note  of  his  generation,  and  never  gained  the 
place  his  talents  and  courage  would  have  made 
for  him  in  almost  any  other  reign.  The  serious 
religious  democracy  saw  in  him  only  a  gaming 
dissolute  man  of  the  world,  and  no  community 
of  political  ideals  even  gave  Fox  power  over  that 
democracy. 

The  significance  of  this  serious  religious  char- 
acter given  by  the  revival  to  life  is  seen  in  the 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  87 

reason  for  the  attitude  of  England  to  the  French 
Eevolution.  The  whole  feeling  was  at  first,  and 
most  naturally,  friendly.  France  was  under  the 
dominion  of  a  dynasty  which,  as  Fox  quite  truly 
pointed  out,*  was  the  natural  enemy  of  England 
and  all  that  England  stood  for.  The  industrial 
democracy  of  England  welcomed  the  ideas  that 
were  spreading  far  and  wide  not  only  in  France 
but  in  Europe.  The  conditions  in  England  might 
have  easily  been  such  as  to  make  the  Eevolution 
a  most  dangerous  factor.  But  the  earnest  re- 
ligious tone  was  alienated  by  not  only  the  ex- 
cesses of  the  Revolution,  but  by  its  decided  anti- 
religious  character.  It  was  here  that  Burke 
succeeded  in  overcoming  even  Pitt's  reluctance, 
and  roused  England  to  the  attitude  she  took. 
Other  nations  took  up  arms  against  France 
because  the  reigning  houses  felt  the  Eevolution 
was  a  blow  at  their  own  security.  It  was  the 
democracy  of  England,  stirred  by  Burke,  that 
compelled  the  unwilling  Pitt  to  enter  upon  the 
war.  Burke  was  no  Tory  in  the  acceptance  of 
an  existing  order  for  its  own  sake  in  unrea- 
soning class  feeling.  He  viewed,  however,  with 
real  alarm,  the  progress  of  ideas  he  thought 
threatened  the  sober,  loyal,  religious  develop- 
ment of  freedom  and  righteousness.  How  far 

*  Burke's  attack  on  Fox  for  this  utterance  was  quite  unfair 
as  a  reply,  though  noble  and  just  as  a  sentiment. 


88        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

he  was  right  is  not  for  us  here  to  consider  and 
decide.  The  point  is  simply  that  his  appeal 
was  heard  by  exactly  the  same  class  that  gave 
Pitt  its  support,  and  for  the  same  reason.  The 
sober  middle  class  was  under  the  dominion  of 
ideas  and  faiths  at  which  the  French  Revolution 
seemed  to  be  aiming  deadly  blows.  The  words 
of  Burke  came  home  to  them,  "  I  call  it  atheism 
by  establishment,  when  any  state  as  such,  shall 
not  acknowledge  the  existence  of  God  as  a  moral 
governor  of  the  world;  when  it  shall  offer  to 
him  no  religious  or  moral  worship;  when  it 
shall  abolish  the  Christian  religion  by  a  regular 
decree  ;  when  it  shall  persecute  with  a  cold,  un- 
relenting, steady  cruelty,  by  every  mode  of  con- 
fiscation, imprisonment,  exile,  and  death,  all  its 
ministers  ; — when  it  shall  generally  shut  up  or 
pull  down  churches;  when  the  few  buildings 
which  remain  of  this  kind  shall  be  opened  only 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  profane  apotheosis 
of  monsters,  whose  vices  and  crimes  have  no 
parallel  amongst  men,  and  whom  all  other  men 
consider  as  objects  of  general  detestation,  and 
the  severest  animadversions  of  law."  * 

Thus  the  English  war  with  France  was  no 
dynastic  intrigue  nor  yet  the  instinctive  spirit 
of  self-defence  that  prompted  the  reigning  fam- 
ilies of  Europe  to  take  up  arms  against  the 

*  Letters  on  a  Regicide  Peace,  Works,  Vol.  II.,  p.  296. 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  89 

root  of  a  spreading  evil.  It  was  a  popular  war 
upon  what  Burke  had  succeeded  in  convincing 
men  was  an  attack  upon  Christian  institutions, 
and  the  great  middle  class  gave  freely  to  put 
down  this  "atheistic"  establishment.  This  se- 
rious tone  was  at  the  eighteenth  century  no 
longer  the  distinctive  mark  of  a  small  band  of 
despised  Methodists.  In  1791  Wesley  was  still 
living,  but  the  movement  that  was  so  closely  to 
be  identified  with  his  name  was  far  wider  than 
his  organization. 

It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  the  very  curious 
and  anomalous  position  the  Methodists  of  Eng- 
land long  held.  The  old  idea  of  the  Moravian 
Church,  of  being  a  purer  church  within  the 
Church  for  its  entire  salvation,  long  lingered  in 
men's  minds.  At  one  time  separation  would 
have  been  very  easy.  Persecution  had  much 
estranged  many,  John  Wesley  seems  ever  to 
have  been  ready  to  go  out.  Charles,  however, 
remained  a  loyal  member,  and  restrained  his 
brother.  In  1744  John  Wesley,  for  instance, 
wrote  a  message  of  loyal  attachment  to  the 
King,  in  view  of  the  threatened  coming  of  the 
Jacobite  pretender.  But  Charles  Wesley  per- 
suaded him  not  to  send  it  because  it  would 
seem  like  separation  from  the  Church  to  send  a 
letter  in  the  name  of  the  Methodists.  Several 
times  separation  was  formally  contemplated  (for 


90        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

example  in  1753,  also  1758),  but  again  Charles 
intervened.  John  Wesley,  however,  had  come 
consciously  to  the  Presbyterian  view  of  the 
identity  of  bishop  and  presbyter  and  the  pure- 
ly administrative  character  of  the  bishop's  of- 
fice, and  he  ordained  and  despatched  bishops  to 
America,  and  in  1785  to  Scotland.  But  in  Eng- 
land he  remained  regular  until  1788,  in  which 
year  he  also  ordained  men  for  England.  Mean- 
time the  battle  had  been  quietly  won.  The  vi- 
tality of  Methodism  had  been  imparted  to  the 
older  church.  Persecution  stopped.  John  Wes- 
ley was  welcome  before  his  death  in  almost  any 
pulpit  he  cared  to  have.  He  wondered  once  if 
the  "offence  of  the  Cross  had  ceased."*  Vari- 
ous societies  had  now  sprung  into  existence  in- 
dependent of  the  Wesleyan  Methodists.  The 
Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodists  had  organized 
societies  as  early  as  1735,  and  held  their  first 
conference  in  1742.  The  Lady  Huntingdon 
"connection"  existed  separately,  though  on  very 
intimate  terms  with  the  so-called  Whitefield 
Methodists. 

The  New  Connection  Wesleyan  Methodists 
were  organized  in  1797  by  Alexander  Kilham, 
and  primitive  Methodism  was  the  outcome  of 
an  attempt  to  return  to  former  simplicity  of 
life,  dress,  and  behavior.  It  was  organized  in 

*  Journal. 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  91 

1807-10,  during  three  years  of  somewhat  bitter 
controversy.  A  small  secession  also  took  place 
in  1806  called  the  Band-room  Secession. 

At  the  time  of  Wesley's  death  in  1791  there 
were  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  two  hundred 
and  ninety-four  preachers  and  71,568  members 
in  his  connection  alone,  and  about  a  dozen  who 
were  ordained  to  administer  the  sacraments. 
Meantime,  however,  the  Established  Church  had 
become  "  methodistical."  Earnest  laymen  were 
probably  more  responsible  for  this  in  the  begin- 
ning than  the  clergy,  and  this  spirit  found  fitting 
expression  in  the  churchly  and  the  social  activi- 
ties of  a  group  of  distinguished  laymen  called 
into  active  service  by  the  awakening.  Not  only 
did  lay  preaching,  begun  by  Nelson  and  Max- 
well, pervade  the  Methodist  Church,  but  within 
the  Established  Church  the  importance  of  the 
lay  element  received  due  notice.  This  was 
wholly  natural.  The  old  High  Church  party 
had  exalted  the  priestly  character  of  the  clergy. 
The  separation  of  the  clergy  from  the  laymen 
was  emphasized  extremely.  The  natural  result 
was  the  leaving  of  those  things  with  which  the 
Church  concerned  herself  in  the  hands  of  the 
clergy.  But  a  change  came  over  men's  minds 
during  the  Evangelical  movement.  The  priestly 
function  was  very  largely  neglected  or  denied. 
The  priestly  character  lost  its  power,  and  the 


92        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

great  separation  was  bridged  by  the  sense  of  a 
common  salvation  and  a  common  duty.  Hence 
it  happened  that  a  great  and  influential  body  of 
laymen  took  part  in  what  was  not  only  social 
and  political  reform,  but  in  the  missionary 
movements  that  sprang  from  the  awakening. 
The  only  missionary  society  in  England  had 
been  the  one  mentioned  as  founded  in  1702, 
"  For  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts."  This  had  been  established  under  the 
patronage  of  William,  and  had  special  reference 
to  the  American  Colonies.  But  in  1792,  "  The 
Baptist  Missionary  Society"  was  planned  by 
the  devoted  Carey,  who  went  to  India.  Then 
there  followed  in  rapid  succession  the  establish- 
ment of  the  London  Missionary  Society  in 
1795 ;  the  Scottish  Church  Society  in  1796 ;  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  in  1799 ;  then  the 
London  Jews  Society  in  1808.  After  that  came 
the  General  Baptist  Missionary  Society;  and 
the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  was  founded 
in  1813.  Besides  these  missionary  societies 
there  were  also  founded,  in  1799,  the  Religious 
Tract  Society  and  not  long  after,  in  1804,  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 

Had  Wesley  never  met  the  Moravians,  in  all 
human  probability  the  Oxford  Methodist  move- 
ment would  have  been  an  Anglican  revival  of 
traditional  Catholicism.  This,  however,  would 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  93 

not  by  any  means  have  excluded  the  possibility 
of  a  strong  and  healthy  Evangelical  movement 
within  the  Church.  For  great  as  is  the  debt 
the  Evangelical  party  owes  and  confesses  to  the 
Wesleyan  movement,  it  had  a  very  different 
theology  and  a  quite  different  temper  and 
habit. 

In  the  convocation  of  1702,  when  first  the 
designations  of  High  Church  and  Low  Church 
are  said  to  have  been  used,  there  wras  brought  to 
light  *  a  radical  difference  existing  in  the  minds 
of  many  as  to  how  the  Anglican  compromise 
between  Catholicism  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Reformation  on  the  other,  was  to  be  viewed. 
The  High  Church  party  had  almost  undisputed 
possession  of  both  Church  and  nation  when 
Queen  Anne's  death,  hastened  without  doubt 
by  the  issues  involved,  gave  again  the  Low 
Church  party  standing  room  in  the  Church. 
The  High  Church  party  seems,  however,  without 
question,  to  have  had  the  balance  of  influence 
in  the  Church.  This  was  no  doubt  because  of 
the  way  dissent  constantly  weakened  the  Low 
Churchmen.  The  long  sleep  of  Church  and 
State  during  the  years  between  1714  (Queen 
Anne's  death)  and  1742  (Walpole's  overthrow) 
was  not  favorable  to  the  High  Church  party. 
Tory  passions  had  gone  to  sleep.  Deism  had 
*  See  Lecture  I. 


94:       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

invaded  the  universities.  The  pretender's 
claims  were  less  and  less  advanced.  The  non- 
juring  High  Church  theology  was  neither  popu- 
lar nor  likely  to  advance  any  man's  interest. 
The  Low  Church  party  was  therefore  a  ready- 
made  soil  for  the  seeds  of  spiritual  fruitfulness 
to  find  root  in. 

Bishop  Burnet  died  in  1715  and  Samuel 
Clarke  in  1729,  leaving  no  intellectual  succes- 
sors. But  when  the  time  came  new  men  rose 
to  lead  the  Church  of  England  forward  to  a 
glorious  chapter  in  her  history.  In  the  mean- 
time the  High  Church  party  had  suffered  by 
the  appearance  of  insincerity  given  it  by  its 
adhesion  to  a  royal  house  whose  claims  it  had 
denounced.  It  was  steadily  and  quietly  put 
aside,  and  no  better  evidence  of  this  exists  than 
the  way  the  bishops  appointed  after  Anne 
treated  the  waywardness  and  irregularities  of 
the  Methodists.  Opposition,  of  course,  they 
had,  but  none  such  as  compelled  them  to  leave 
the  Establishment ;  a  thing  easy  to  have  been 
accomplished  had  any  of  the  bishops  seriously 
pressed  for  their  expulsion  in  the  very  begin- 
ning. 

Court  influences  were  also  on  the  side  of  the 
Low  Church  party  after  1760,  and  George  III 
prided  himself  on  his  interest  in  religion.  The 
rise  therefore  of  the  Evangelical  phase  of  the 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  95 

religious  movement  was  contemporaneous  with 
the  Methodist  movement,  yet  in  many  ways  dif- 
fered from  it. 

In  the  first  place  it  was  decidedly  Calvinistic. 
The  Thirty-nine  Articles  gave  this  tone  to  the 
whole  party.  The  Calvinism  was  generally 
moderate  and  based  rather  on  English  divinity 
than  on  any  first-hand  study  of  Calvin  himself. 
The  homilies  and  plain  teachings  of  the  ru- 
brics were  rather  ignored  than  attacked,  and 
the  interest  centred  more  in  the  practical  re- 
ligious life  than  either  in  -abstract  theology  or 
consistent  churchmanship.  In  the  second 
place  the  Evangelical  party  was  less  instinc- 
tively hostile  to  culture  and  what  was  then 
known  as  "secular"  learning.  A  man  like 
Edward  Young  exercised  a  considerable  influ- 
ence by  his  Night  Thouyhts,  but  also  wrote 
dramas,  was  in  court  circles  and  sought  no  such 
separation  of  life  as  Methodism  attempted  in 
certain  phases  of  its  development.  The  works 
of  James  Hervey  gave  it  a  certain  literary 
standing.  His  Meditations  and  Dialogues  were 
astonishingly  popular.  His  theology  and  general 
tone  were  characteristic  of  the  early  Evangelical- 
ism. He  writes  to  Wesley :  "  As  for  points  of 
doubtful  disputations — those  especially  which 
relate  to  particular  or  universal  redemption — 
I  profess  myself  attached  neither  to  the  one 


96        ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

nor  the  other.  I  neither  think  of  them  myself, 
nor  preach  of  them  to  others."  *  Yet  his  Cal- 
vinism was  pronounced,  and  gave  rise  in  the 
last  days  of  his  life  to  a  serious  breach  with 
Wesley.  This  Calvinistic  tone  made  the  bond 
between  the  Evangelical  party  and  the  Non- 
conformists much  stronger  than  between  them 
and  the  Methodists,  as  the  Dissenters  were 
without  serious  exception  Calvinistic.  Watts 
and  Doddridge  and  Cudworth  were  the  life- 
long friends  of  Hervey,  and  the  Commentary  of 
Henry  gave  the  Evangelical  party  its  chief 
authority  upon  the  Bible.  Even  in  the  life-time 
of  the  Nonconformist  Dr.  Watts  his  hymns 
were  used  in  the  Established  Church  service. 
Men  like  Grimshaw  of  Haworth  represented 
the  more  Methodist  type  in  the  Evangelical 
ranks.  Rapidly  this  Evangelicalism  became 
the  dominant  party.  Even  old  Tories  like  Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson  were  Evangelical  in  their  the- 
ology. The  writings  of  Hannah  More  spread 
widely  the  opinions  which  would  have  been 
rejected  coming  either  from  Dissenting  minis- 
ters or  from  Methodist  exhorters.  No  serious 
opposition  was  made  to  Evangelicalism,  for  the 
old  "High  and  Dry,"  as  it  now  came  to  be 
called,  commanded  no  one's  respect.  The  futile 
violence  of  isolated  clergymen  who  disgraced 
*  Quoted  by  Tierman,  Oxford  Methodists,  p.  254. 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  97 

their  cloth  by  leading  mobs  against  Whiten* eld, 
Wesley,  Ingham,  and  Grimshaw  rather  reacted 
in  favor  of  the  views  they  advocated,  and  greatly 
increased  the  interest  in  the  questions  they 
raised.  The  attitude  of  the  throne  kept  down 
any  effective  Episcopal  interference,  and  the 
rapid  establishment  of  societies  and  the  spread 
of  their  literature  secured  the  substantial  ad- 
hesion of  the  Church  to  Evangelical  ways  of 
looking  at  religion. 

The  national  advantage  at  this  time  of  the 
triumph  of  Evangelicalism  in  the  Church  rather 
than  High  Church  Ritualism  is  not  to  be  un- 
derstated. The  weakness  of  English  life  had 
been  the  division  upon  religious  matters  in 
which  the  Dissenters  had  formed  the  extreme 
wing  of  a  Protestant  party,  while  a  Catholic 
party  of  the  Laud  type  had  formed  the  other 
extreme.  The  national  church  in  the  compro- 
mises that  mark  its  history  was  torn  in  two  by 
the  political  factions  that  sympathized  with 
one  or  other  of  these.  Thus  the  nation  was 
weakened  and  divided  by  these  differences. 
The  large  mass  of  Englishmen  up  to  the  death 
of  Queen  Anne,  certainly  at  least  within  the 
Establishment,  was  Catholic.*  But  it  never  was 

*  We  use  the  -word  "  Catholic  "  to  signify  the  churchly 
claims  to  be  an  exclusive  medium  for  the  ordinary  convey- 
ance of  divine  grace. 

7 


98       ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Eoman  Catholic.  The  triumph  of  the  Catholic 
party  even  in  the  degree  in  which  they  are  now 
triumphant  would  have  alienated  the  dissenting 
bodies,  and  would  have  made  a  great  deal  more 
permanent  the  divisions  in  English  life.  The 
weakness  of  George  III  would  have  made  any 
such  divisions  as  those  created  by  religious  con- 
tention most  lamentable  if  not  fatal  blunders  in 
those  hours  of  peril  that  came  with  Napoleon's 
attempts  on  the  marine  supremacy  of  England. 
Happily  the  Catholic  party  was  too  weak  at 
this  time  to  withstand  the  drawing  together  of 
the  strong  Protestant  elements  of  the  nation. 
Dissent  and  Evangelicalism  worked  hand  in 
hand.  The  Methodists  were  never  disloyal  to 
the  Church  in  which  both  Charles  and  John 
Wesley  died.  The  Moravians  never  left  the 
Church,  and  after  the  disruption  in  Yorkshire 
many  seem  to  have  returned  quietly  to  the  full  en- 
joyment of  her  privileges.  It  was  a  most  happy 
providence  for  constitutional  liberty  that  at  a 
time  when  it  was  most  seriously  threatened, 
England  was  Evangelical  and  Protestant  even 
in  a  sense  that  is  not  true  to-day.  A  serious 
ultramontane  conspiracy  in  England  against 
the  religious  and  civil  liberties  of  the  nation 
within  the  Established  Church  is  hardly  now 
within  the  possibilities  of  practical  politics.  It 
might  have  been  far  otherwise  had  Wesley  and 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  99 

his  little  band  gone  out  like  Keble  and  Newman 
to  restore  not  Protestantism  but  Catholic  tradi- 
tions to  English  life  ;  to  sow  not  harmony  but 
religious  discord  among  the  rapidly  increasing 
populations  of  English  towns  from  1739  to 
1792. 

No  one  can  claim  that  the  Evangelical  party 
fairly  represents  the  historical  development  of 
the  elements  that  are  gathered  together  in  the 
English  Church.  The  Catholic  elements,  star- 
ing in  the  face  the  passer-by  who  reads  the 
rubrics  or  the  homilies,  were  completely  ignored. 
The  obvious  inferences  with  regard  to  author- 
ity and  the  sacraments  that  the  High  Church 
men  in  all  periods  of  the  history  of  the  Estab- 
lishment have  drawn,  were  not  challenged  nor 
corrected  but  simply  passed  by.  Small  as  it 
has  at  times  been  a  Catholic  party  has  never 
failed  to  maintain  high  ground  on  the  questions 
ever  at  issue  between  true  Protestantism  and  a 
Catholic  Church  party  in  any  one  of  its  phases. 

Fortunately  for  England's  social  development 
the  Catholic  claims  were  forgotten  by  all  but  a 
few.  Dissent  welcomed  the  Evangelical  party 
as  Protestant  allies.  The  challenge  of  the 
Oxford  Methodist  who  remained  true  to  his 
High  Church  position  fell  on  ears  too  full  of 
the  joyous  cry  of  victory  to  have  any  effect. 
The  political  lines  no  longer  coincided  with  the. 


100     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

religious  divisions,  and  England  stood  strongly 
and  confidently  on  tho  basis  of  a  Protestant 
democracy  against  all  attempts  made  in  the 
name  of  liberty  against  her  freedom. 

This  far-reaching  political  and  social  signifi- 
cance given  to  the  Evangelical  party  seems  all 
the  stranger  when  it  is  remembered  through 
what  curious  influences  it  came  about.  'White- 
field  was  no  thinker ;  and  as  against  Wesley  in 
an  argument  he  was  a  child.  Nor  was  he  in  all 
things  a  far-seeing  or  very  strong  man.  Yet 
had  his  Calvinism  been  less  unquestioned  he 
never  could  have  acted  as  he  did  the  part  of  a 
link  between  Methodism,  Calvinistic  Evangeli- 
calism, and  Dissent.  In  the  new  enthusiasms 
and  fervent  heats  of  Evangelistic  activity  Prot- 
estantism flew  into  a  still  greater  number  of 
fragments ;  and  yet  the  movement  as  a  whole 
in  a  most  unexpected  way  gave  political  and 
social  unity  through  the  infused  Evangelical 
spirit. 

The  growth  of  the  Evangelical  party  was 
greatly  quickened  by  the  exertions  of  the  social 
influence  of  Lady  Huntingdon  and  the  high 
literary  influence  of  Hannah  More.  The  poems 
of  Cowper  also  gave  it  a  position  in  the  world 
of  letters  to  which  Methodism  could  not  aspire. 
The  king  was  known  to  favor  it,  and  the 
intense  activity  in  all  circles  of  society  trans- 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTLY  J 

formed  the  atmosphere  of  the  upper  classes. 
So  that  the  first  twent}r  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century  saw  it  fairly  in  possession  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church  and  making  rapid  headway  in  Eng- 
lish society.  Up  to  1832  (the  Beform  Bill) 
the  social  meaning  of  Methodism  must  remain 
for  the  most  part  an  assumption.  Methodists 
were  not  as  a  class  properly  represented  in  Par- 
liament. They  were  a  power,  but  only  such  a 
power  as  strong  public  opinion  is,  where  no 
channel  exists  for  sending  a  message  to  inter- 
pret definitely  its  will.  Had  the  religious 
activity  of  the  Established  Church  taken  the 
form  during  the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century  that  it  did  in  1839,  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  whether  it  would  be  possible  to  link 
definitely  the  Evangelical  movement  to  the 
social  progress.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  French 
Revolution  and  after  it  the  social  reform  spirit 
was  diffused  over  the  whole  nation.  The  part 
of  the  Methodists,  however,  had  to  remain 
rather  that  of  suggestion  than  of  active  partici- 
pation, because  of  the  unrepresented  character 
of  the  class.  There  is  no  reasonable  doubt  that 
Burke's  appeal  on  behalf  of  India  against  War- 
ren Hastings  was  heard  at  all  only  because  of 
the  sentiment  kindled  by  the  Methodist  move- 
ment. The  England  of  Walpole  would  have  paid 
not  the  slightest  attention,  especially  during  the 


102'    X&0ZJ8JST  nELIOIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

fox-hunting  season.  Yet  it  is  not  easy  to  trace 
this  connection  save  by  showing,  as  one  easily 
may,  how  entirely  different  the  atmosphere  had 
become,  and  how  widely  different  the  aims  and 
ideals  of  that  generation  were,  from  those  of 
Walpole's  time. 

Moreover,  the  social  activity  was,  in  the  ear- 
lier years,  of  necessity,  largely  individual.  It 
was  the  training  of  children,  building  chapels, 
founding  missionary  and  Bible  societies,  organ- 
izing private  charity,  visiting  the  prisons,  and 
coming  into  real  and  vital  contact  with  diverse 
life.  There  can  be  no  real  help  rendered  men 
without  knowledge  of  them,  of  their  life,  preju- 
dices, ignorances,  limitations,  hopes,  and  fears. 
The  brutal  ignorance  of  one  class  concerning  the 
life  of  a  weaker  makes  even  clever  and  good  men 
unfit  rulers  of  their  fellows.  Before  the  democ- 
racy of  England  could  gain  recognition,  men 
had  to  be  raised  up  with  not  only  sympathy,  but 
with  knowledge  of  the  conditions  under  which 
men  around  them  were  living.  In  theory  an 
Established  Church  supplies  the  needed  oppor- 
tunity for  sympathetic  contact  man  with  man, 
and  supports  a  class  whose  peculiar  function  it 
is  to  be  servants  of  all  and  to  render  to  society 
the  most  important  service  of  interpreting  one 
manner  of  life  to  another.  In  point  of  fact,  how- 
ever, making  all  allowances  for  the  inevitable 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  103 

infirmity  of  human  nature,  tlie  Established 
Church  was,  during  the  reigns  of  George  I  and 
George  II,  and  even  of  Queen  Anne,  most  shame- 
fully remiss.  The  "High  and  Dry  "party  was 
separated  by  Tory  prejudice  and  aristocratic 
pride  from  the  growing  trading  class,  of  whom 
it  became  intensely  jealous.  Speaking  of  the 
period,  Thorold  Eogers  declares,  "  There  is  no 
period  in  English  history  in  which  the  pride  of 
the  English  noble  was  more  absorbing  and  more 
obtrusive  than  during  the  time  (1750-1785)  on 
which  I  am  immediately  commenting.  It  be- 
trayed itself  in  a  thousand  affectations  and  a 
thousand  insolences.  Noble  youth  found  a  sat- 
isfaction in  street  outrages  and  indecencies, 
noble  age  in  vaporing  about  the  privileges  of 
the  peers  and  in  attempts  to  constitute  them 
selves  a  limited  order.  .  .  .  Three-fourths 
of  them  would  have  restored  the  Stuarts,  from 
sheer  hatred  to  the  moneyed  men."  *  The 
"High  and  Dry  "  Church  party  was,  unfortu- 
nately, in  the  hands  of  this  class.  The  Tory 
squire  and  the  Tory  parson  hunted  and  drank  to- 
gether, and  were  alike  utterly  incapable  of  enter- 
ing into  the  new  life  growing  up  all  about  them. 
Many  of  them  were  not  bad  men,  judged  by  or- 
dinary street  standards,  but  they  were  worse 
than  useless ;  they  were  obnoxiously  in  the  way. 

*  Work  and  Wages,  p.  473. 


104     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

These  men  the  early  Methodist  movement 
could  not  touch,  and  they  formed  also  a  barrier 
over  which  the  movement  could  not  easily  have 
passed.  Yicars  like  the  Keverend  George  White 
headed  mobs  to  suppress  the  Methodist  enthu- 
siasm. Even  to-day  the  prejudice  against  the 
Methodists  is  so  strong  that  to  attend  their 
chapels  would,  in  some  regions,  exclude  from 
circles  that  call  themselves  Christian  in  Eng- 
land. It  was,  therefore,  no  ordinary  event  in 
the  social  development  of  England  when  Evan- 
gelical principles  raised  up,  not  a  clergy  only, 
but  a  strong  and  influential  laity  who  eagerly 
sought  to  understand  and  reach  the  life  that  was 
about  them.  Happily  for  England  the  great 
growing  trading  classes  heard  eagerly  the  fresh 
message,  and  relationships  were  established 
whose  social  significance  is  not  at  all  measured 
by  the  reforms  in  Parliament  directly  connected 
with  the  Evangelical  movement.  Nothing  is 
more  remarkable  than  the  way  the  religious 
movement  swept  on,  effecting  great  changes  in 
^  one  class  without  apparently  exciting  even  re- 
mark in  the  other  classes.  Just  as  Christianity 
had  undermined  the  Koman  Empire  before  the 
literary  world  even  knew  the  name  of  Christ, 
save  in  the  most  casual  way,  so  also  the  original 
Methodist  movement  might  have  worked  unseen 
and  unnoticed  in  the  class  it  largely  spread  in 


THE  EVANGELICAL  PARTY  105 

had  it  not  been  for  the  founding  of  a  more 
thoughtful  Calvinistic  section,  whose  influence 
told  at  once  upon  ranges  of  English  society  com- 
paratively beyond  the  reach  of  the  Methodist 
preachers.  The  religious  movement  might  eas- 
ily have  split  English  society  in  much  the  way 
that  Germany  was  split  in  two  by  the  Reforma- 
tion. It  was  a  most  providential  thing  that 
quite  apart  in  many  ways  from  the  spirit  of 
Methodism  there  grew  up  an  Evangelical  party, 
even  more  closely  allied  with  the  Establishment 
and  having  its  ear. 

One  of  the  grave  disadvantages  to  the  Refor- 
mation was  the  physical  struggle  it  had  to  en-, 
gage  in  for  its  life.  This  both  narrowed  and 
hardened  its  thought,  and  made  the  Jesuit  re- 
action possible  by  diverting  its  spiritual  energies 
into  other  than  religious  channels.  Had  the  re- 
ligions movement  in  England  been  confined  to 
the  Methodist  Church  and  the  classes  it  chiefly 
influenced,  there  would  inevitably  have  been  a 
struggle  for  political  power,  but  in  that  struggle 
the  purely  class  feeling  would  have  been  even 
more  largely  developed ;  and  it  is  almost  certain 
that  the  Methodists,  as  a  class,  would  have  gone 
into  political  life,  as  under  certain  other  condi- 
tions they  did  in  America.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  struggle  for  representation  was  not  left  to 
them  alone.  The  union  of  feeling  with  the 


106     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Evangelical  party  saved  England  from  a  very 
serious  division  and  a  very  grave  danger  of  the 
state. 

The  social  significance  of  the  rise  of  the  Evan- 
gelical party  is  emphasized  still  further  by  the 
definite  political  character  the  party  soon  as- 
sumed. But  it  could  do  this  with  far  less  loss 
than  the  Methodists  could  have  done  it,  for  it 
did  not  have  to  struggle,  in  the  first  place,  for 
the  political  recognition  that  would  have  en- 
gaged the  attention  and  very  likely  have  ex- 
hausted the  strength  of  the  unrepresented  Meth- 
odists had  they  been  compelled  to  struggle 
alone.  It  was,  therefore,  of  great  social  import 
that  there  rose  slowly  in  English  life  a  phase  of 
the  religious  movement  quite  unique  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  and  destined  to  play  no  in- 
considerable part  in  England's  political  life. 


LECTUEE  IV. 

THE    EVANGELICAL    PARTY    AND    SOCIAL 
REFORM 

IT  was  inevitable  that  the  religious  awaken- 
ing should  show  in  the  personal  lives  and  the 
domestic  manners  of  Englishmen.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  examine  the  coarseness  of  Swift 
and  Smollett  to  see  how  lacking  in  delicacy  of 
feeling  and  thought  even  the  most  talented  of 
the  brilliant  preceding  generation  were.  Novels 
were  read  aloud  in  refined  circles  in  George  I's 
time  that  older  women  would  not  now  care  to 
read  alone.  Convention,  like  law,  may  be  only 
the  ghost  of  a  past  morality.  Yet  even  if  this 
is  so  the  existence  of  conventions  and  laws  point 
to  a  morality  once  very  much  alive.  The  gener- 
ation that  rejoiced  in  Hervey's  Meditations  and 
Miss  Edge  worth's  Tales  may  have  fallen  a  lit- 
tle below  the  critical  feeling  that  welcomed 
Swift  and  Fielding,  but  there  is  no  question  as 
to  the  wholesomeness  of  the  change  in  tone  and 
propriety.  Nor  had  men  to  wait  long  before 
Sir  "Walter  Scott  demonstrated  that  all  the 
genius  of  Queen  Anne's  novelists  might  find  a 
107 


108     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

still  mightier  rival  in  the  garb  of  absolute  puri- 
ty and  innocence.  English  literature  suffered 
no  fatal  excision  when  Evangelicalism  insisted 
upon  cutting  out  from  it  the  ribald  jest  and  the 
animal  coarseness  that  mars  much  good  work  of 
days  gone  by. 

The  statistics  of  communal  morals  are  practi- 
cally worthless  in  the  ordinary  hands.  The 
penal  code  of  England  remained  long  the  shock- 
ing witness  to  a  barbarism  that  had  disappeared 
ages  ago  in  France  and  Germany.  Yet  the 
real  administration  of  justice  in  England  for  the 
last  hundred  and  fifty  years  was  probably  as  far 
ahead  of  those  countries  as  the  code  seemed  to 
be  behind.  It  is  not  therefore  from  the  statis- 
tics of  lessened  crimes  that  a  fair  estimate  can 
be  formed  of  the  force,  as  a  social  factor,  of  the 
Evangelical  party. 

This  may  be  more  plainly  demonstrated  in 
the  annals  of  Parliament  and  in  the  exciting 
struggles  for  great  moral  principles  and  social 
reforms  in  which  the  leaders  of  Evangelicalism 
engaged  and  with  marked  success. 

Nonconformists  had  never  been  absolutely 
excluded  by  the  test  acts  from  political  life. 
Yet  the  class  was  not  fairly  represented  in  pub- 
lic life,  and  their  feelings  and  aspirations  found 
little  organized  expression.  The  Methodists 
belonged  to  a  class  still  more  unrepresented  in 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       109 

the  governing  bodies.  Upon  the  Evangelical 
party  in  the  Established  Church,  therefore,  fell 
the  duty  of  giving  to  aroused  moral  and  social 
feeling  proper  legislative  expression.  Here  the 
experience  of  the  religious  circle  or  society 
proved  of  great  value.  Societies  were  formed 
for  the  doing  of  the  many  things  to  be  done, 
and  the  agitation  of  reforms  to  be  carried. 

In  all  of  these,  even  where  the  churchly  feel- 
ing was  dominant,  laymen  took  not  only  active 
but  leading  parts.  The  life  of  Samuel  Wilber- 
force  is  almost  a  history-  of  the  establishment  of 
these  agencies  for  making  and  organizing  social 
forces.  What  this  lay  leadership  did  for  the 
sanity  and  reasonableness  of  the  movement  can 
only  be  judged  by  contrasting  the  spirit  of  ec- 
clesiasticism  in  any  age  with  the  broad  and 
sweeping  spirit  of  the  religious  movement  as  it 
entered  upon  this  phase  of  its  special  activity. 
From  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  to 
1832  nothing  was  heard  of  but  reform.  Pris- 
ons, poor  laws,  penal  codes,  emancipation,  re- 
form bills,  Jewish  disabilities,  slave  trade  and 
slavery,  the  relief  of  Dissenters,  the  establish- 
ment of  schools,  the  reform  of  asylums,  the 
founding  of  hospitals,  the  improving  of  cot- 
tages, the  establishment  of  charity  organiza- 
tions for  a  multitude  of  purposes,  all  these  things 
called  for  the  unceasing  activities  of  men  like 


110     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

the  Thorntons,  Howard,  and  Wilberforce.  But 
these  were  only  a  few  of  the  hosts  enlisted  now, 
no  longer  from  those  only  who  were  touched  by 
the  religious  principles,  but  also  from  those 
whose  philanthropic  zeal  had  no  such  basis.  The 
introduction  of  such  a  spirit  lifted  the  whole  tone 
of  Parliament.  "  In  no  respect,"  says  Lecky,* 
"  does  the  legislation  of  this  period  (1714-1742) 
present  a  more  striking  contrast  to  that  of  the 
nineteenth  century  than  in  the  almost  complete 
absence  of  attempts  to  alleviate  the  social  con- 
dition of  the  poorer  classes  or  to  soften  the 
more  repulsive  features  of  English  life."  This 
contrast  is  fairly  startling  when  one  glances  at 
the  Parliamentary  activity  from  the  time  of  the 
younger  Pitt  to  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria, 
and  compares  it  with  that  of  Townshend  and 
Walpole's  reigns. 

At  first,  of  course  the  Evangelical  party  was 
based  only  upon  a  common  enthusiasm  for 
righteousness  which  the  leaders  identified  with 
the  theological  doctrines  that  formed  the  basis 
of  their  appeal.  There  was  little  united  ethical 
sentiment  save  as  regarded  the  personal  life  and 
relations. 

Wesley  had,  indeed,  denounced  slavery.  One 
of  his  last  messages  before  he  died  was  one  of 

* History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  Vol.  I., 
P.  540. 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM      111 

encouragement  to  Wilberforce  in  regard  to  this 
matter.  On  the  other  hand,  Whitefield  bought 
slaves  for  his  mission  and  Hervey  presented  him 
with  one  which  he  resolved  to  call  "  Weston," 
after  the  name  of  Hervey 's  parish.*  "  I  think," 
Whitefield  writes,  "  to  call  your  intended  pur- 
chase *  Weston',  and  shall  take  care  to  remind 
him  by  whose  means  he  was  brought  under  the 
everlasting  gospel."  This  was  in  response  to 
Hervey's  note,  "  When  you  please  to  demand,  my 
brother  will  pay  you  £30,  for  the  purchase  of  a 
negro.  And  may  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  give  you, 
or  rather  take  for  Himself,  the  precious  soul  of 
the  poor  slave  ! "  These  were  intended  partly 
to  cultivate  the  ground  about  his  orphanage  in 
Georgia,  partly  to  be  instructed  in  Christianity. 

Then  came  a  time  when  the  Evangelical  party 
was  more  than  a  party  of  certain  opinions  and 
emotions.  Already  in  1808  Sydney  Smith 
sneers  at  "  The  party  which  it  (Evangelicalism) 
has  formed  in  the  legislature."  f 

Sydney  Smith  classes  Arminian  and  Calvin- 
isfcic  Methodists  and  the  evangelical  clergymen 
of  the  Church  of  England  together  and  says: 
"  We  shall  use  the  general  term  Methodists  and 
distinguish  these  three  classes  of  fanatics,  not 
troubling  ourselves  to  point  out  the  finer  shades 

*  Tierman,  Oxford  Methodists,  p.  277. 
\Works,  Vol.  I.,  p.  126. 


112     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

and  nicer  discriminations  of  lunacy."  *  "  We 
must  remember,"  says  he  in  another  place, 
"that  the  Methodists  have  formed  a  powerful 
party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  who,  by  the 
neutrality  which  they  affect,  and  partly  adhere 
to,  are  courted  both  by  ministers  and  oppo- 
sition." Of  course  he  is  here  referring  to  the 
great  influence  of  that  distinguished  body  of 
laymen  that  strongly  mark  the  Evangelicalism 
of  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
"Well  might  even  Sydney  Smith  speak  of  the 
"  unimpeachable  character  "  and  "  talents  of 
some"  of  a  party  containing  such  names  as 
Wilberforce,  Grant,  Parry,  and  the  Thorntons, 
the  founders  of  the  African  Missionary  Society. 
For  very  early,  the  purely  doctrinal  character  of 
the  religious  revival  gave  place  to  a  social  ac- 
tivity that  can  hardly  be  called  political,  because 
of  this  very  "  neutrality "  of  which  Sydney 
Smith  complains. 

The  hostile  attitude  of  many  members  of  the 
Established  Church  flung  Evangelical  clergy- 
men within  its  pale  into  closer  contact  with 
various  shades  of  nonconformity.  The  "  Toler- 
ation Acts  "  of  Wai  pole  had  indeed  allayed  the 
dissenting  agitation,  but  the  earnest  Noncon- 
formists, at  first  as  hostile  to  Methodism  as  the 
Establishment,  soon  recognized  in  it  an  ally. 

*  Works,  Vol   I.,  p.  96. 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       113 

Without  becoming  a  recognized  party,  the  Evan- 
gelical movement  was  soon  found  on  the  side  of 
Pitt  when  Pitt  advocated  reform,  and  the  new 
philanthropy  which  sprang  out  of  the  revival 
allied  itself  with  every  agitation  for  social  ame- 
lioration. 

There  was  also  a  curious  chapter  opening  in 
the  history  of  India.  The  steady  struggle  of 
England  with  France  had  gradually  given  not 
only  Northern  America  over  to  English-speak- 
ing races,  but  India  also  became  the  ward  of  the 
Indian  Company.  Not  all  Macaulay's  brilliant 
periods  can  reconcile  a  modern,  not  to  say 
Christian,  conscience  to  the  methods  and  imme- 
diate results  of  that  conquest.  Happily  for 
England,  the  new  religious  philanthropy  and 
the  new  spirit  of  universality  began  to  drive 
men  far  afield  to  proclaim  Christ.  In  India  it 
was  not  the  Established  Church  that  first  felt  the 
burden  of  these  millions,  but  a  few  German  and 
Danish  missionaries.  Before  long,  English  mis- 
sionaries began  to  seek  India  as  a  field  of  labor. 
The  company  opposed  the  project,  and  clergy- 
men in  the  Establishment  saw  in  these  mission- 
aries dangerous  fanatics  who  would  only  incite 
the  populations  to  bloodshed.  By  the  time, 
however,  that  missionary  enterprise  was  spread- 
ing, there  was  an  Evangelical  leaven  in  the 

House  of  Commons,  and  the  despised  mission- 
8 


114:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

aries  were  links  of  communication  between  India 
and  the  common  people.  In  1808  Sydney  Smith 
complains  that  the  Evangelical  party  had  gained 
complete  possession  of  the  India  House,  "  and 
will  take  care  to  introduce  (as  much  as  they 
dare  without  provoking  attention)  their  own 
peculiar  tenets."  * 

This  is  interesting  testimony  because  it  was 
to  the  rising  tide  of  public  morality  that  Burke 
trusted  his  venture  when  he  assailed  Warren 
Hastings,  entrenched  as  he  was  behind  all  that 
influences  of  the  most  potent  character  could 
bring  up.  No  nobler  appeals  to  national  con- 
science have  ever  been  made  in  the  English 
tongue  than  by  Burke.  One  is  tempted  to  won- 
der if  he  had  been  called  the  dinner-bell  of  the 
House  after  the  Evangelical  awakening  had  done 
its  work,  and  a  Eeform  Parliament  with  a  con- 
science was  sitting  in  "Westminster.  Schlegel  is 
said  to  have  remarked  of  him,  "  Without  main- 
taining any  system  of  philosophy  he  seems  to 
have  seen  farther  into  the  true  nature  of  society 
and  to  have  more  clearly  comprehended  the  ef- 
fect of  religions  in  connecting  individual  secu- 
rity with  national  welfare  than  any  philosopher 
of  any  preceding  age."  So  it  is  no  surprise 
to  find  Burke  already  anticipating  that  reform 
which,  more  than  anything  else,  seems  to  have 
*  Essay  on  Methodism,  p.  117.  Works,  Vol.  I.,  Ed.  1808. 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM      115 

moulded  the  Evangelical  party  into  a  fighting  J 
reform  organization.  Burke  it  was  who  wanted 
to  move  against  the  slave  trade.  But  he  was 
too  early.  It  was  reserved  for  Wilberforce,  as 
the  head  of  that  party,  to  first  effectively  attack 
it.  When  it  is  remembered  how  profitable  that 
trade  was,  how  harmless  it  seemed  to  one  who, 
like  John  Newton,  had  engaged  in  it  for  two 
years  after  his  conversion,  and  how  completely 
the  reform  wanted  actual  interests  behind  it 
pressing  for  its  acceptance,  there  is  no  more 
honorable  chapter  in  the  social  history  of  man- 
kind than  the  victory  gained  over  greed,  op- 
pression, and  self-interest  by  the  Evangelical 
party  under  the  leadership  of  the  pious  Wilber- 
force. 

Wesley,  Baxter,  Cowper,  and  many  others  had 
denounced  the  traffic.  The  Quakers  had  long 
been  on  record  against  the  horrors  of  the  trade. 
But  when  Thomas  Clarkson  and  William  Wil- 
berforce began  their  agitation,  the  seats  of  V 
the  traffic  were  just  those  places  where  the 
Evangelical  revival  had  done  its  best  work — 
Bristol,  Liverpool,  and  the  seaport  towns  of  the 
west  coast  had  heard  the  voices  of  Evangelical- 
ism most  eagerly,  and  so  the  opposition  on 
which  all  attempts,  such  as  those  of  David 
Hartly  (1776)  and  Burke  had  foundered,  were 
really  being  undermined  by  the  rising  tide  of 


116     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

philanthropic  and  social  feeling  engendered.  A 
committee  was  formed  on  May  22,  1787,  under 
the  chairmanship  of  Granville  Sharp,  and  in 
twenty  long  years  of  struggle,  at  last  Christian 
principle  and  sympathy  conquered  (March  25, 
1807).  The  trade  was  suppressed;  but  Chris- 
tian opinion  did  not  stop  there.  To  abolish  all 
slavery  in  the  colonies  was  the  next  step,  and 
the  same  machinery  that  had  been  called  into 
being  to  oppose  the  trade  overcame,  in  1833,  the 
institution.  The  payment  of  twenty  millions  of 
pounds  (£20,000,000)  suppressed  forever  chattel 
slavery  in  the  British  Empire. 

Of  course,  the  slavery  agitation  raised  a  storm 
of  ridicule.  The  Evangelicals  were  represented 
as  hypocrites,  pretenders,  selfish,  meddling  per- 
sons. The  floating  literature  of  the  day  abounds 
with  the  sneers  and  attacks  made  on  the  leaders 
and  the  movement.  A  powerful  colonial  party, 
with  money,  influence,  tradition,  and  the  old 
English  bogey  of  "  vested  rights,"  that  has  stood 
guard  over  so  many  invested  wrongs,  did  all 
that  it  was  in  their  power  to  do  to  stop  the 
measure.  Pitt,  toward  his  death,  lent  only  half- 
hearted support  to  his  friend  "Wilberforce. 
Fox  was,  however,  an  unwavering  supporter, 
and  it  was  during  his  premiership  that  the 
trade  was  suppressed.  Burke,  as  long  as  he 
lived,  lifted  up  his  voice  against  the  traffic.  It 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       117 

was,  however,  the  forces  the  religious  move- 
ment had  called  into  being  and  organized  that  at 
last  signally  triumphed.  This  anti-slavery  agi- 
tation had  far-reaching  consequences  in  the 
machinery  it  thus  created  for  its  purpose  of 
making  propaganda.  "  Free  sugar  "  circles,  and 
contributions  for  the  slaves,  efforts  to  reach  them 
with  schools  and  literature,  resulted  in  intense 
interest  in  colonial  life,  and  in  great  missionary 
activity.  Wilberforce  and  Hannah  More  could 
not  be  put  aside  as  fanatics  and  hypocrites. 
The  Evangelical  party  was,  of  course,  repre- 
sented by  pictures,  familiar  to  us  even  now,  of 
red-nosed  parsons  with  dirty  white  ties.  Mis- 
sionary effort  was  freely  caricatured  as  the 
supplying  of  natives  with  woollen  socks  and 
the  like.  The  "  candid  friends  "  of  the  upper 
classes  were  heartily  disliked,  but  could  not  be 
got  rid  of.  That  which  to-day  is  so  disagree- 
able to  some  English  statesmen  as  the  "  Non- 
conformist conscience "  was  then  doubly  pain- 
ful as  the  Evangelical  party,  and  the  power  of 
reform  from  1780  to  1832  was  largely  not  the 
moral  sentiment  alone  aroused  by  the  religious 
revival,  but  the  special  organization  called  into 
being  by  the  reforms  advocated  by  the  Evan- 
gelical party,  who  could  be  neither  bribed  nor 
discouraged. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the  fruitless 


118     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

discussion  as  to  whether  Clarkson  or  TVilber- 
force  was  the  originator  of  the  abolition  move- 
ment. Long  before  either  of  them  became 
interested  the  Quakers  had  advocated  the  same 
thing.  For  a  number  of  years  many  had  felt 
the  unhappy  character  of  the  traffic.  But  that 
which  was  needed  most — organized  public  opin- 
ion— was  lacking.  The  significance  of  the  aboli- 
tion movement  was  tremendous.  It  gave  men 
faith  in  the  power  of  organized  moral  feeling  by 
persistent  agitation  to  accomplish  anything. 

In  Liverpool  alone  over  10,000  persons  were 
reputed  as  engaged  directly  in  the  slave  traffic, 
besides  many  more  indirectly  connected  with 
the  trade.*  Only  organized  enthusiasm  and 
resolute  faith  could  do  anything  against  such 
an  array  of  interests.  Happily  the  groundwork 
for  organization  was  already  laid.  The  Dis- 
senters, Methodists,  and  Evangelical  circles 
were  to  a  man  enlisted.  Clarkson  outside  of 
Parliament  and  "Wilberforce  within  toiled  not 
in  vain.  Although  the  independence  of  each 
member  of  the  Evangelical  party  within  the 
house  was  vigorously  maintained,  yet  Wilber- 
force could  speak  of  "  our  set "  voting  for  this 
or  that  measure.  The  party  thus  independent 
meant  a  great  deal  to  any  ministry.  Not  only 
in  numbers  were  they  important,  but  their  ver- 
*  Hansard,  1805. 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       119 

diet  meant  much  to  the  country.  Bitter  was 
the  opposition  from  extreme;  party  men  on  both 
sides.  They  feared  God  and  regarded  not  the 
face  of  man.  The  Whiteheads,  father  and  son, 
the  Thorntons,  Grant,  W.  Smith,  Young  and 
others  made  a  following  not  to  be  despised  for 
influence  either  inside  or  outside  the  house. 
The  slave-trade  gave  a  constant  reason  for  an 
organization,  and  the  result  of  their  presence 
and  conscientious  labors  lifted  the  tone  of 
Parliament  to  a  plane  from  which  it  has  never 
again  entirely  fallen.  Wilberforce  lamented, 
and  with  much  truth,  that  Pitt  did  not  go  even 
farther  than  he  did.  With  courage  great  things 
might  have  been  accomplished  that  had  to  wait 
for  other  times.  Wilberforce  thought  his  own 
signal  success  in  Yorkshire  by  an  appeal  to 
men's  better  natures  would  have  sounded 
through  England  the  knell  of  corrupt  party  rule, 
had  Pitt  had  the  faith  to  try  the  same  thing. 
"He was  then  able,"  says  Wilberforce,  "if  he 
had  duly  estimated  his  position,  to  have  cast  off 
the  corrupt  machinery  of  influence  and  formed 
a  government  upon  the  basis  of  independent 
principle.  The  return  "  (of  Wilberforce)  "  was 
an  intimation  of  that  power  with  which  intelli- 
gence and  property  had  now  armed  the  middle 
ranks  of  society."  *  The  characteristics  of  the 
*  Life,  p.  33,  American  Edition. 


120     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

religious  revival  as  we  have  watched  them  from 
the  beginning  were  strongly  marked  in  Wilber- 
force.  He  lived  according  to  rule,  as  far  as  he 
could,*  following  Doddridge's  suggestions.  One 
of  his  first  efforts  was  to  form  a  society  for  the 
reformation  of  manners  like  the  one  Btirnet 
speaks  of  in  1692.f  He  had  the  same  habit  of 
writing  largely  of  his  own  spiritual  experiences 
and  reflections  in  those  diaries  that  have  sup- 
plied the  historian  with  the  most  minute  data 
for  any  account  of  this  period  that  can  be  had. 
With  him  sprang  into  being  various  associa- 
tions. Christianity,  as  "Wesley  remarked,  is  so- 
cial. No  great  revival  of  the  religious  impulse 
has  ever  taken  place  without  a  springing  up 
of  societies,  associations,  guilds,  orders,  circles, 
etc.  This  was  as  true  of  the  social  activity  of 
the  Evangelical  party,  as  it  had  been  of  the 
more  purely  religious  beginnings  of  Methodism. 
The  slave  agitation  produced  at  once  a  com- 
mittee, circles,  branches,  etc.,  outside  of  Parlia- 
ment and  to  them  Wilberforce  and  Clarkson 
went  for  inspiration  and  support. 

It  is  astonishing  with  what  antiquated  weap- 
ons every  reform  is  fought.  The  first  step 
taken  in  Parliament  was  to  compel  the  slave- 
traders  to  reduce  the  number  of  slaves  carried. 
The  reply  was,  it  is  nonsense  to  interfere  ;  self- 
*  Life,  p.  49.  f  Ibid.,  p.  66. 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       121 

interest  will  protect  tlie  health  of  valuable  slaves, 
far  inore  than  law.  But  the  law  went  through. 
In  the  year  before  Sir  Dobbens'  bill  passed  2,643 
slaves  had  perished  in  the  awful  Middle  Passage 
from  overcrowding.  After  the  bill  the  number 
was  reduced  to  three  hundred  and  twenty-five, 
and  the  Liverpool  merchants  confessed  that  the 
legislation  had  actually  increased  their  profits.* 

While  the  slave-trade  agitation  was  going  on 
the  zeal  of  the  party  found  also  other  outlets 
for  reform.  Sunday  bills  were  introduced,  and 
although  the  legislation  did  not  succeed  the 
agitation  did  acknowledged  good.  Gambling 
received  serious  consideration,  and  even  Fox 
denounced  it  as  an  evil.  Echoes  of  Howard's 
work  were  heard  in  a  county  jails'  bill  that 
enlisted  the  Evangelical  men  on  humanity's  side 
in  1783.  Every  mention  of  Parliamentary  re- 
form found  them  all  on  their  feet  as  in  1784. 
And  Burke  led  them  in  an  attack  on  the 
methods  of  dealing  with  prisoners  to  be  trans- 
ported that  led  to  serious  changes,  1784.  Burke 
stated  in  his  speech,  what  seems  now  almost 
incredible,  that  over  100,000  such  had  to  be  pro- 
vided for  in  the  year !  t 

Minchin,  an  Evangelical  Member  of  Parlia- 
ment, led,  in  1787,  an  attack  on  the  still  bloody 
penal  laws,  and  one  finds  the  familiar  list  on  his 
*  Hansard's  Reports,  1805.  f  Hansard,  1784. 


122     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

side.  In  the  same  spirit  and  with  the  same  fol- 
lowing we  find,  in  1791,  Gray,  another  member 
of  the  Evangelical  party,  having  a  committee 
appointed  on  imprisonment  for  debt,  and  we 
read  the  astonishing  estimate  made  by  Burke  of 
10,000  as  lying  in  jail,  and  over  20,000  in  hid- 
ing to  avoid  jail.  This  speech  was  among  the 
last  ones  Burke  made.  A  little  while  after  he 
was  on  his  dying  bed,  and  the  last  pages  that 
came  under  his  dying  eyes  were  Wilberforce's 
Practical  View  of  Christianity,  so  at  least  Henry 
Thornton  wrote  to  Hannah  More. 

The  power  of  the  Methodists  and  Dissenters 
and  their  close  union  with  the  Evangelical  party 
were  exhibited  on  a  national  scale,  when  a  move 
was  made  by  one  of  the  bishops  that  threatened 
the  Toleration  Act.  The  excitement  compelled 
the  immediate  withdrawal  of  all  such  proposals. 
Even  any  restriction  upon  the  licensing  of  dis- 
senting ministers  was  rejected,  and  the  Bishop 
of  London  found  himself  compelled  for  a  shil- 
ling or  sixpence  to  license  as  many  dissenting 
preachers  as  demanded  it,  while  the  Established 
Church  labored  under  very  much  more  elaborate 
arrangements. 

The  starvation  in  the  North  of  England,  ow- 
ing to  the  wars,  gave  the  Evangelicals  an  oppor- 
tunity not  neglected.  A  society  "  for  the  bet- 
tering of  the  condition  of  the  poor"  received 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM      123 

"Wilberforce's  interest  and  gave  great  force  to 
the  later  reforming  party  in  Yorkshire  and  the 
manufacturing  districts.  It  was  through  the 
labors  of  this  •  society  that  the  epoch-making 
factory  legislation  began.  The  condition  of 
children  in  the  cotton-mills  could  not  but  excite 
compassion.  Little  children  from  nine  to  ten 
years  of  age  were  dragged  from  their  dirty  beds 
at  two,  three,  and  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  to 
work  for  their  mere  subsistence  until  ten,  eleven, 
and  twelve  o'clock  at  night.  The  horrors  of  the 
awful  traffic  in  children's  blood  were  disclosed 
in  various  official  reports.*  The  observance  of 
Sunday  was  sinking  into  very  obnoxious  desue- 
tude, and  the  moment  attempts  were  made  by 
the  Evangelical  party  to  better  protect  the  day, 
the  retort  was  too  easy  that  they  were  robbing 
the  poor  of  the  only  day  they  had  for  them- 
selves. The  Saturday  half-holiday,  secured  by 
law  for  women  and  children,  and  then  gradually 
as  a  result  of  this  for  adults,  was  very  largely 
due  to  the  activity  of  this  same  party. 

One  of  the  great  blessings  of  this  social  ac- 
tivity of  the  Evangelical  political  party,  was  the 
close  union  brought  about  by  it  with  the  rising 
trades  unions  of  England.  There  is  no  prouder 
chapter  in  the  history  of  the  working  democracy 

*  Parliamentary  Commissions  on  the  Staffordshire  Pottery 
Works,  Reports  of  the  Children's  Employment  Commission, 
etc. 


124:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

than  the  history  of  English  trade  unionism. 
Its  quiet,  steady,  temperate,  cautious  advance 
has  been  largely  due  to  the  character  of  the 
men  whom  Methodism  trained,  and  the  sym- 
pathy and  support  extended  by  men  who  dared 
the  reproaches  of  their  own  class  in  society 
and  struggled  for  their  brethren  against  selfish- 
ness, prejudice,  and  slander  to  secure  justice  and 
righteousness. 

The  independence  of  the  Evangelical  par- 
liamentary party  stood  them  in  good  stead  dur- 
ing this  long  conflict  with  slavery  at  home  after 
they  had  fought  for  twenty  years  with  slavery 
abroad.  Liberalism  was  under  the  sway  of  the 
Manchester  economic  theories.  The  anti-corn 
law  agitation  had  convinced  men  that  freedom 
of  trade  was  what  was  needed.  The  self-sacri- 
ficing labors  of  Cobden  and  the  political  econ- 
omy of  Adam  Smith  had  won  a  battle  against 
a  selfish,  narrow,  landed  aristocracy,  bent  upon 
taxing  the  whole  community  in  order  that  they 
might  as  landlords  demand  their  rents  as  of  old. 
As  over  against  this  selfish  and  boldly  en- 
trenched oligarchy  the  Manchester  school  did 
noble  service.  The  reform  bill  and  the  repeal  of 
the  corn-laws  gave  the  democracy  a  living  chance. 
The  straggle  for  abolition,  reform,  and  repeal 
lifted  the  whole  political  life  of  England  to  a 
better  standing-ground.  One  danger  that  was 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       125 

rising  on  the  horizon  the  Manchester  school  did 
not  and  would  not  see.  The  wage  slavery  that 
was  growing  up  about  them  seemed  the  out- 
come of  laws  their  whole  political  economy  had 
taught  them  to  bow  down  to  and  worship,  to  the 
neglect  of  nobler  altars.  The  protest  of  Evan-* 
gelicalism  against  the  factory  slavery  seemed  to 
the  triumphant  Manchester  men  a  betrayal  of 
all  they  considered  won.  They  looked  upon  the 
attempt  for  any  sentimental  reasons,  to  interfere 
with  the  "  laws  of  trade  "  as  gross  treachery  to 
proved  principles. 

The  alliance  between  scientific  liberalism  and 
the  Evangelical  party  Wilberforce  knew  was 
based  on  only  superficial  agreement.  He  speaks 
of  the  struggle  coming  in  regard  to  the  East 
India  Company's  charter,  and  writes:  "But 
more — that  we  must  secure  the  entrance  of  mis- 
sionaries. To  whom  can  any  discretionary 
power  of  granting  or  refusing  leave  to  go  be 
trusted  ?  I  must  think  over  this  important 
point,  but  I  have  long  conceived  that  probably 
those  who  are  interested  for  religion  will  be 
compelled  to  join  the  great  body  of  commercial 
and  political-economy  men,  who  will,  I  doubt 
not,  contend  for  destroying  the  monopoly  of  the 
Company,  and  leaving  the  road  to  the  East 
Indies  free  and  open."  * 

*  Life^  American  Edition,  p.  342. 


126     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

In  the  reform  movement  the  part  played  by 
the  Evangelicals  was  perhaps  more  indirect, 
although  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  without 
its  support  reform  must  have  waited  longer 
still.  The  Church  was,  as  such,  opposed  to  re- 
form because  under  the  baneful  influence  of 
Tory  squire  and  wealthy  land-owner.  Had  the 
Tory  party  been  able  to  command  the  Church  as 
a  whole  in  the  way  it  did  before  Evangelicalism 
arose  and  has  often  done  since,  reform  would 
have  had  a  far  harder  struggle.  In  the  provi- 
dence of  God  Evangelicalism  had  found  Dis- 
senters and  Methodists  its  earnest  supporters 
in  the  long  battle  for  abolition,  in  the  support 
of  the  Bible  Society,  and  the  agitation  for  im- 
provement in  morals  and  the  suppression  of 
vice.  It  was  the  great  nonconforming  liberal 
body  of  Liverpool,  Leeds,  Manchester,  and  the 
North  that  clamored  for  reform  in  the  repre- 
sentation in  Parliament.  Leeds  had  no  repre- 
sentation, while  Old  Saruin,  with  a  few  poor 
cottages,  had  two  members  in  the  house.  The 
inequality  was  defended  by  the  old  arguments, 
"  vested  interests  "  and  "property  rights,"  the 
spirit  of  the  constitution  and  the  admirable 
work  Parliament  had  done,  etc. 

No  step  ever  taken  was  wiser  than  the  sup- 
port given  by  the  Evangelical  party  to  this 
measure,  for  it  introduced  into  the  life  of  Eng- 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM      127 

land  the  elements  she  most  needed  for  her 
stability.  It  would  be  too  much  to  claim  that 
this  great  constitutional  change  was  wholly  the 
work  of  the  religious  movement,  but  it  is  within 
the  mark  to  say  that  the  reform  bill  and  the 
introduction  with  it  into  English  parliamentary 
life  of  the  great  middle  class  would  have  been 
morally  impossible  without  the  training  and  the 
organization  of  the  Evangelical  party  and  the 
Methodist  and  Dissenting  chapels.  The  social 
meaning  of  the  early  Evangelical  movement  may 
be  said  to  have  found  its  profoundest  expression 
during  this  reform  agitation.  Again  and  again 
it  is  possible  to  trace  its  influence  in  parliamen- 
tary life.  On  questions  such  as  "Jewish  disa- 
bilities," "  the  Irish  question,"  and  "  the  corn 
law  agitation,"  the  Nonconformist  influence  was 
felt,  though  not  unitedly,  nor  on  the  basis  of 
the  old  humanitarian  enthusiasm  that  made  the 
struggle  against  slavery  and  for  reform  both 
ennobling  and  strengthening. 

The  Evangelical  party  lost  its  first  great 
leader  by  death  in  1833,  but  the  mantle  fell  on 
worthy  shoulders,  for  Lord  Shaftesbury  was 
already  in  Parliament  and  was  pursuing  exactly 
the  same  independent  course  which  gave  the 
Evangelical  party  such  power  during  the  days 
of  "Wilberforce.  The  Manchester  School  was 
agitating  for  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws,  and 


128     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

demanding  free  trade  and  a  policy  of  peace  and 
non-interference  with  European  policy.  In  all 
these  things  the  great  dissenting  and  low  church 
masses  followed  the  lead — of  course  with  ex- 
ceptions— of  Cobden  and  Bright.  Soon,  how- 
ever, they  had  given  them  other  work  to  do  in 
which  they  could  not  look  for  the  support  of 
the  very  men  who  had  aided  them  in  their 
abolition  struggle  and  whom  they  had  helped 
in  the  Corn  law  repeal. 

As  far  back  as  1802  we  saw  that  the  awful 
conditions  of  the  manufacturing  classes  had 
excited  the  compassion  of  the  Evangelical  lead- 
ers in  Parliament,  and  a  bill  had  been  passed 
"for  the  preservation  of  the  health  and  morals 
of  apprentices  and  others  employed  in  cotton 
mills  and  in  cotton  and  other  factories."  The 
bill  fixed  for  such  boys  a  day  of  twelve  hours, 
and  limited  night-work.  This  bill  was,  of 
course,  opposed.  It  was  as  usual  against  the 
"  spirit  of  the  constitution,"  etc.,  etc.  But  the 
opposition  was  neither  organized,  nor  did  it 
seemingly  find  much  public  sympathy.  Those 
were  times  when  men  expected  Parliament  to 
interfere  largely  in  regulating  trade  and  life. 
So  also  in  1809,  the  hours  for  children's  labor 
were  still  farther  restricted  in  certain  mills. 

The  employment  of  mere  babies  at  dangerous 
work  was  stopped,  and  up  to  sixteen  the  day 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       129 

was  made  twelve  hours.  Again  in  1825,  Sir 
John  Cain  Hobhouse  earned  through  a  bill 
granting  a  partial  holiday  on  Saturday  for  chil- 
dren, and  this  had  the  support  of  all  the  Evan- 
gelicals who  were  striving  to  save  the  Sunday 
from  entire  transformation  into  a  day  of  amuse- 
ment and  revelry  in  the  factory  districts. 

Now,  however,  a  change  came.  The  "  politi- 
cal economy  men,"  as  Wilberforce  called  them, 
in  their  righteous  struggle  against  the  corn- 
laws  and  the  tax  on  trade  for  the  benefit  of  the 
landlords,  laid  down  axioms  that  neither  experi- 
ence nor  economic  speculation  has  borne  out. 
On  the  basis  of  absolute  industrial  freedom  they 
hoped  to  build  up  an  ideal  society.  This  worked 
in  the  supposed  interests  of  the  mill  men  and  the 
manufacturers,  and  after  the  bill  in  1831,  which 
prohibited  night- work  for  "  persons  "  (i.e.,  chil- 
dren) under  twenty-one,  every  step  to  regulate 
the  slaughter  and  degradation  of  England's 
middle  and  lower  classes  aroused  the  fiercest 
opposition. 

At  this  time  the  Evangelicals  joined  hands 
with  the  growing  unions  and  with  the  landlords 
to  regulate  their  former  allies  in  past  conflicts. 
From  1833,  when  a  bill  was  passed  that  stopped 
all  night-work  for  boys  and  girls  under  eighteen 
in  spinning  and  weaving  mills,  and  began  to  in- 
sist on  school  attendance  and  to  establish  in- 
9 


130     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

spection  of  factories,  the  work  went  steadily  on. 
Lord  Shaftesbury  became  the  spokesman  of  the 
Evangelical  party  in  and  out  of  the  House  of 
Parliament.  He  labored  at  Exeter  Hal],  was 
the  President  of  the  Bible  Society,  and  aroused 
all  England  by  his  fearful  but  all  too  truthful 
tale  of  the  woes  of  child  life  in  "  Christian  Eng- 
land." The  act  of  1835  found  56,455  children 
employed,  while  in  1836,  although  the  factories 
had  been  reduced  in  number,  the  employed 
children  were  only  29,283. 

Then  came  the  struggle  to  include  women, 
and  the  shocking  revelations  of  women  hitched 
up  with  blind  horses,  and  of  little  children  push- 
ing the  carts  from  behind,  in  dark  wet  passages, 
underground,  woke  England's  sympathy,  and 
the  employment  of  women  and  children  in  mines 
was  finally  prohibited.* 

The  next  step  was  very  hard.  But  the  Fac- 
tory act  of  1844  f  has  become  the  beacon-light 
of  social  reformers  ever  since,  and  was  the  direct 
outcome  of  the  Evangelical  party's  agitation  and 
appeal  to  the  conscience  of  England.  This  act 
made  the  word  "person  "  in  the  clauses  of  vari- 
ous acts  containing  the  words  "  young  persons  " 
include  all  women.  School  attendance  was  made 
compulsory.  Children  were  limited  to  an  aver- 
age of  six  and  a  half  hours  work  a  day.  Lord 
*  5  and  6  Viet.,  c.  99.  f  7  Viet.,  c.  15. 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM      131 

Shaftesbury  still  further  amended  the  act  in 
1845  to  include  "  print  works." 

All  this  was  done  under  fire  from  "good 
people "  who  were  soaked  with  prejudices 
against  paternalism  in  government,  and  who 
claimed  that  the  self-interest  of  employers  was 
enough  to  protect  women  and  children.  The 
law  of  trade  by  which  all,  even  babies,  were  to 
be  protected  in  their  "  rights  "  to  sell  their  labor 
under  no  restriction  was  precious  in  the  eyes 
of  the  trading  and  "political  economy  men." 
Happily  for  England  and  the  world,  her  great 
trading  and  manufacturing  era  had  been  pre- 
ceded by  the  great  religious  awakening;  con- 
science was  too  quick,  hearts  were  too  sympa- 
thetic, to  tolerate  the  conditions  that  unrestricted 
demand  for  human  unskilled  labor  produced. 
In  1847  a  ten  hours  bill  came  as  a  boon  to  all 
women  and  young  persons,  and  this  was  still 
further  amended  to  make  it  exclude  night- work. 
On  the  commissions  that  drew  up  these  bills 
Lord  Shaftesbury  became  the  familiar  figure. 
In  him  the  chimney-sweep  and  the  factory  hand 
found  voice.  He  spoke  for  Evangelical  Low 
Churchmen  and  for  Evangelical  Nonconformity, 
and  watched  the  progress  of  social  reform  with 
wise  and  kindly  eye.  The  work  went  on  after 
1844  and  1847,  but  the  struggle  has  been  over 
details  and  not  principles.  In  1860  other  trades 


132     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

were  taken  in,  and  in  1874  a  factory  act  sought 
to  unify  the  whole  regulation.  But  the  general 
provisions  were  the  demand  for  sanitary  condi- 
tions for  all  workers,  protected  machinery,  safety 
at  work,  holidays,  education,  and  certificates  of 
fitness. 

The  principle  of  state  interference  with  trade 
conditions  was  battled  for  by  religious  sentiment 
and  conscience  against  organized  selfishness 
supported  by  all  the  scientific  political  economy 
maxims  of  the  day.  It  had  tremendous  social 
meaning  that  conscience  and  sentiment  won  the 
battle.  Not  only  in  the  immediate,  indisputable 
benefits  the  laws  conferred  are  we  to  find  this 
significance,  but  also  in  the  victory  itself  of  or- 
ganized righteousness.  The  work  of  Howard 
was  tentative.  Prison  reform  is  relatively  as 
crying  a  need  to-day  as  in  Howard's  time.  Our 
penal  machinery  still  lacks  fearfully  in  scientific 
adjustment  to  life  and  social  conditions.  Yet  at 
the  same  time  Howard  established  right  princi- 
ples, and  awoke  men  to  the  real  discussion  of 
the  complete  questions  involved.  He  did  more. 
He  introduced  into  the  discussion  what  he 
brought  to  it,  the  question  of  a  vital  and  a  vital- 
izing righteousness.  The  names  of  Howard  and 
Elizabeth  Fry  will  stand  out  to  all  time  as  pio- 
neers and  worthy  explorers  in  the  strange  and 
dark  areas  of  human  existence  where  crime  and 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  EEFOJKM       133 

violence  demand  communal  interference  for  the 
protection  of  social  life.  The  social  meaning  of 
the  exertions  of  Wilberforce  and  the  Evangelical 
party  is  not  limited  to  individual  victories  like 
slavery's  suppression.  All  the  French  chatter 
about  human  brotherhood  at  the  time  of  the 
Eevolution  had  not  one  tithe  of  the  social  sig- 
nificance that  the  practical  recognition  of  that 
brotherhood  had  when  Wilberforce  stood  up 
year  after  year  to  plead  for  the  souls  of  negro 
slaves  in  the  English  Parliament,  and  demanded 
for  them,  as  men,  the  protection  of  English  law. 
The  universality  of  Christianity  never  found 
more  fitting  expression  than  in  this  demand  for 
the  freedom  of  the  slave. 

Nor  can  we  see  in  the  protection  of  England's 
little  children  the  whole  social  significance  of 
the  Evangelical  activity  under  the  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury.  There  is  no  real  line  between 
children  and  the  weakness  of  unorganized 
adults.  The  concession  that  weakness  demands 
the  strong  communal  protection  extended  by 
the  factory  acts  includes  the  weakness,  not 
simply  of  women  and  children,  but  of  all  who 
for  any  reason  need  that  same  arm.  So  long  as 
the  state  was  a  group  of  powerful  families,  men 
naturally  felt  jealous  of  the  interference  of  such 
a  state  in  their  affairs.  The  democracy  of  Eng- 
land began  after  1832  to  trust  Parliament  as  a 


134:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

state  in  which  conscience  had  a  place,  and  with 
all  its  defects  as  on  the  whole  a  safe  arbiter  be- 
tween man  and  man.  The  discontented  social- 
istic dreams  of  Europe  have  no  fitting  soil  in 
England,  not  because  any  thinking  man  is  con- 
tent with  existing  conditions,  but  because  dis- 
content has  found  a  fitting  though  slow  method 
both  of  expression  and  of  remedy. 

To  claim  this  state  of  things  as  the  result  of 
dogmatic  Christianity  would  be  absurd. 

To  say  that  the  religious  revival  of  the  eigh- 
teenth and  nineteenth  centuries  was  a  chief  fac- 
tor is  to  abide  well  within  the  mark.  To  maintain 
that  the  social  condition  of  England  to-day  is 
what  it  is  in  its  best  and  most  lasting  features 
because  of  the  work  of  the  great  Evangelical 
leaders  is  capable  of  demonstration.  The  awak- 
ening of  the  social  conscience,  and  the  applica- 
tion of  methods  of  social  organization  to  the 
problems  of  modern  life,  is  largely  the  work  of 
that  movement  which  began  on  the  coal-fields  of 
Kingswood  in  the  field  preaching  of  Whitefield, 
and  that  has  permeated  not  English  life  only 
but  the  life  of  the  world,  now  so  closely  linked 
together  by  the  highways  of  commerce. 

To  those  who  identify  the  Evangelical  re- 
vival and  Evangelicalism  our  task  would  now  be 
completely  outlined.  But  we  cannot  so  identify 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       135 

them.  Evangelicalism  was  only  one  bodily 
form  under  which  the  religions  inspiration  did 
important  work.  It  was  too  deep  a  movement, 
too  real  a  spiritual  and  divine  regeneration  to 
confine  itself  to  one  set  of  intellectual  formulae. 
In  some  respects  Evangelicalism  was  funda- 
mentally lacking.  In  its  enthusiasm  and  noble 
reliance  upon  its  Christian  experience,  in  its 
felt  consciousness  of  the  divine  presence,  it 
lacked  power  of  discrimination.  Its  Protestant- 
ism was  not  thorough-going.  Never  had  it  confi- 
dence full  and  complete  in  the  foundation-stone 
of  Protestant  theology ;  that  confidence  in  God 
and  man,  which  made  the  Reformation  so  dar- 
ing, which  is  to-day  the  strength  of  Protestant- 
ism and  still  forms  the  basis  of  it.  Wesley 
had,  indeed,  defended  private  judgment,  and 
remarked  that  finally  to  this  bar  all  truth  must 
be  brought.*  But  in  truth  Evangelicalism  only 
asserted  it,  as  does  the  Eoman  Church,  in  order 
at  once  to  crucify  it.  On  the  basis  of  private 
judgment  all  external  written  authority  is  ac- 
cepted, and  from  that  on  it  ceases  to  have  any 
real  standing.  The  verbal  theories  of  inspira- 
tion promulgated  by  Evangelicalism  became  to 
the  party  what  the  councils  decisions  are  to 
the  Eoman  Catholic — the  end  of  all  argument. 
Practically,  whether  in  Eome  or  in  Evangel- 
*  Journal,  August,  1743,  p.  289. 


136     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

icalism,  room  for  growth  is  made  by  the  utterly 
uncritical  use  of  the  abundant  and  various  ma- 
terial at  hand.  This  externalizing  of  the  au- 
thority, however,  worked  more  and  more  disas- 
trously as  the  inner  glow  and  sense  of  an  ever 
present  and  living  experience  of  God,  which  had 
so  marked  the  earlier  life,  slowly  disappeared. 

The  early  Evangelicalism  had  indeed  unfail- 
ingly asserted  the  sole  authority  of  the  very 
letter  of  scripture,  and  had  from  the  beginning 
defended  an  intensely  uncritical,  unhistorical, 
and  mechanical  theory  of  that  authority.  But 
no  movement  ever  followed  with  greater  vigor 
the  inspirations  of  the  present  and  living  hour, 
quite  apart  from  the  professed  authority,  or 
without  even  attempting  any  satisfactory  adjust- 
ment between  the  conflicting  claims.  As  the 
age  became  more  reflective,  as  the  fervor  out 
of  which  Evangelicalism  itself  grew,  touched  at 
all  points  the  life  of  England,  there  was  bound 
to  be  a  searching  of  hearts,  and  an  appeal  from 
the  intellectual  inconsistencies  all  too  plainly 
visible. 

The  hard  and  shallow  character  of  the  theol- 
ogy of  Evangelicalism  was  not  so  visible  nor 
so  destructive  on  the  Methodist,  or  Arminian 
wing  because  it  was  not  the  organizing  prin- 
ciple of  its  life.  But  within  the  Established 
Church  and  in  nonconforming  circles  there 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       137 

were  no  new  organizations  and  no  new  princi- 
ples of  discipline.  For  them  the  new  fervor 
had  but  one  channel,  and  that  was  the  hard  and 
somewhat  shallow  form  of  Calvinism  that  rested 
neither  on  historical  study  of  Calvin  nor  on  full 
and  critical  study  of  the  Bible. 

Hence  it  happened  that  though  the  zeal  of 
Evangelicalism  was  undisputed,  its  hold  over 
many  thinking  men  was  insecure.  It  in  fact 
invited  the  very  speculation  it  condemned,  and 
brought  forth  children  bound  to  call  in  question 
the  formulae  Evangelicalism  too  often  identified 
with  final  truth. 

Men  refused  to  rest  satisfied  with  a  doctrine 
of  election  that  omitted  all  the  safeguards 
placed  about  it  by  Calvin  and  the  older  English 
divines.  Popular  Evangelicalism  reduced  the 
confessed  mystery  to  an  arbitrary  wantonness 
on  the  part  of  the  Supreme  Being.  As  long  as 
fervor  and  new  enthusiasm  awoke  vivid  sensa- 
tions these  were  regarded  as  conclusive  evi- 
dences of  a  sure  election,  and  the  doctrine  for 
such  as  felt  these  sensations  was  robbed  of 
much  of  its  terror.  The  eloquence  born  of  real 
feeling  awoke  in  hundreds  these  sensations  and 
thus  increased  the  comfortable  "  number  of  the 
elect."  When,  however,  such  a  mind  as  that  of 
the  poet  Cowper  was  swayed  now  by  one  set  of 
sensations  and  now  by  another,  and  refused  to 


138     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

accept  the  memory  of  past  peace  as  an  evidence 
of  sure  election,  the  result  was  not  only  intense 
suffering,  but  an  absolute  perversion  of  the 
gospel,  and  a  caricature  of  God.  On  sensitive 
minds  this  form  of  the  doctrine  left  a  horror  of 
uncertainty  worse  than  that  of  Eome,  for  Koine 
relieves  the  mind  she  cannot  assure  of  salvation 
by  the  doctrines  of  purgatory  and  the  interces- 
sion of  saints. 

When  a  calmer  mind  grasped  the  doctrine 
intellectually,  as  did  the  mother  of  Maurice,  and 
yet  was  incapable  of  the  spiritual  ecstasy  which 
sealed  election  for  so  many  early  Evangelicals, 
the  result  was  great  spiritual  desolation  and 
suffering. 

In  like  manner  crass  and  wholly  unbiblical 
and  unoriental  conceptions  of  the  atonement 
still  linger  as  a  heritage  from  this  stage  of  the 
Evangelical  development. 

Statements  of  the  doctrine  lacked  both  criti- 
cal exactness  and  spiritual  insight.  There  was 
no  proper  consideration  of  the  ethical  and  legal 
questions  involved,  nor  any  proper  knowledge 
of  the  historical  development  of  the  ideas  that 
were  proclaimed  as  fundamental  to  the  Christian 
system,  although  they  had  their  origin  in 
heathen  legalism  and  found  no  support  in  the 
New  Testament  except  by  gross  misconstruction 
of  its  plain  language. 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM       139 

The  scholastic  prominence  given  to  Adam  re- 
appears with  wearisome  iteration  in  Evangeli- 
calism. Nor  does  it  ever  seem  to  occur  to  so 
useful  and  so  spiritual  a  Bible  student  as  Scott 
to  inquire  whence  Adam  gained  this  place  in 
theology,  whether  from  Paul,  or  from  a  scholas- 
ticism long  after  Paul. 

The  notes  of  the  Evangelicalism  of  these,  its 
last  years  of  creative  activity,  were  the  unhis- 
torical  spirit  of  its  theology,  its  utter  lack  of 
scientific  curiosity  as  to  the  intellectual  frame- 
work of  its  philosophy,  and  the  calm  ignoring 
of  important  sides  of  life  and  truth  ever  spring- 
ing into  view.  Indeed  Evangelicalism  stood 
back  quite  appalled  by  the  children  of  the  very 
same  religious  awakening  from  which  it  sprang, 
and  failed  utterly  to  recognize  the  same  religious 
zeal  in  other  garb,  that  had  given  it,  nay,  was 
still  giving  it,  power  to  regenerate  the  race,  and 
establish  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

It  was  hindered  from  the  recognition  by  its 
excessive  spirit  of  individualism,  to  use  a  much- 
abused  phrase.  The  saving  of  souls  was  the 
task  it  set  itself,  but  they  were  to  be  saved  out 
of  the  world,  and  not  kept  in  the  world  for  that 
world's  sake.  Segregation  and  sectarianism,  the 
establishment  of  "  circles  "  and  "  inner  circles  " 
not  for  the  world's  sake,  but  for  the  members' 
own  souls'  sake,  marred  the  spiritual  life  of  the 


140     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

last  phases  of  Evangelicalism.  It  became  nar- 
row even  in  its  philanthropies,  and  began  to 
compass  land  and  sea  for  proselytes  to  the  sect. 
Gross  lack  of  charity  broke  its  inner  unity.  In- 
sistence upon  phrases  became  normal  to  its 
temper.  Injustice  and  bigotry  were  the  natural 
fruit  of  this  state  of  things.  In  the  excessive 
emphasis  upon  an  assurance  of  personal  faith 
it  became  self-centred,  and,  even  in  certain 
phases,  profoundly  selfish,  atheistical,  and  un- 
loving. Its  very  charity  and  philanthropy  be- 
gan, like  mediaeval  charity,  and  for  the  same 
reason,  to  injure  rather  than  aid  the  commun- 
ity. Eoman  Catholic  charity  has  too  often 
been  proclaimed  as  a  means  of  grace  to  the  giver 
apart  from  the  effect  upon  the  receiver.  Hence, 
in  countries  under  the  dominance  of  Rome, 
charity  has  often  lowered  the  independence  of 
the  community,  and  distracted  attention  from 
the  primary  injustice  and  wrongs  upon  which 
misery  and  poverty  rest. 

The  reforms  for  which  Evangelicalism  had 
been  ready  to  sacrifice  so  much  were  now  mat- 
ters of  glorious  history.  Eeligious  zeal,  how- 
ever, is  not  a  matter  of  splendid  reminiscence  ; 
forgetting  those  things  which  are  behind  the 
true  religious  spirit  presses  forward.  Evangeli- 
calism became  a  party,  with  a  certain  constant 
significance  as  the  guardian  of  important  les- 


EVANGELICALISM  AND  REFORM      Ul 

sons  and  traditions,  but  no  longer  with  enough 
vitality  to  lead  the  onward  movement  of  the  re- 
vival. The  fierce  caricatures  of  Evangelicalism 
that  abound  in  English  letters  seem  both  un- 
called for  and  very  unreasonable  in  the  light 
of  its  acknowledged  services  to  the  communal 
life  of  England.  It  is  only  possible  to  under- 
stand this  fierce  hostility  when  one  fully  realizes 
how  completely  Evangelicalism  sought  at  last 
to  separate  religion  from  life,  and  how  drearily 
narrow  became  its  conception  of  the  relation  of 
man  to  his  fellow-men  and  to  his  God.  The 
"scheme  of  salvation,"  as  Evangelicalism  pro- 
claimed it,  became  a  formula  for  the  acquisition 
of  future  blessedness  at  the  expense  of  joy  and 
fellowship  sacrificed  here.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  many  noble-hearted  Evangelicals  never  felt 
the  full  force  of  the  teaching  nor  went  the  full 
length  that  others  did.  Nevertheless,  an  air  of 
insincerity  and  externalism  began  to  pervade 
the  teaching  and  preaching,  the  reform  and 
philanthropic  work,  that  made  it  a  very  ready 
mark  for  a  world  that  never  liked  it  and  re- 
sented bitterly  its  fiery  denunciation  of  much 
that  reasonable  men  felt  was,  in  proper  place, 
harmless,  or  even  noble. 

Moreover,  the  contact  of  Evangelicalism  had 
been  largely  with  the  middle  and  upper  middle 
classes.  It  was  distinctly  liberal  in  politics, 


142     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

and  without  any  marked  influence  over  men  of 
letters  or  the  aristocracy  of  England,  who  still 
in  the  last  analysis  controlled  the  destiny  of 
England.  The  reform  activity  has  still  farther 
alienated  these  classes,  and  gave  it,  in  the  minds 
of  many,  the  attitude  of  constant  menace  to 
modes  of  thought  and  feeling,  to  institutions 
and  arrangements,  that  had  much  that  was  beau- 
tiful and  worthy,  and  were  still  further  endeared 
to  English  life  by  antiquity  and  tradition.  The 
time  was  already  come  where  it  was  to  be  saved 
for  further  usefulness  by  the  purifying  process 
of  antagonism  and  contradiction.  It  was  to  be 
softened  and  broadened  and  stripped  of  some 
outward  deformity  by  the  rising  in  England  of 
religious  phases  wholly  different  from  it  in  in- 
tellectual temper,  though  united  to  it  in  the  so- 
cial significance  that  links  together  all  phases  of 
the  Evangelical  Revival. 


LECTUEE  V. 

RADICALISM  AND   REFORM 

WERE  we  tracing  the  history  of  either  religi- 
ous or  social  thought  it  would  be  needful  now  to 
again  go  back  to  the  Puritanism  of  the  restora- 
tion for  an  explanation  of  strange  windings  in 
the  history  of  radical  religious  conceptions. 
For  this  inquiry  there  is,  however,  no  proper 
place  here.  Sufficient  must  it  be  to  notice  the 
prevalence  of  a  large  element  of  exceedingly 
radical  religious  thinking  in  the  great  mass  of 
Nonconformity.  The  Reformation  set  men's 
minds  free.  The  wider  the  range  of  human 
inquiry  the  larger  is  the  possibility,  nay,  the 
necessity,  for  great  intellectual  divergence.  The 
day  when  all  good  men  could  meet  for  action  on 
a  hearty  acceptance  of  even  a  very  simple  plat- 
form of  religious  opinion  has  probably  gone 
forever. 

Presbyterianism,  for  perfectly  evident  histori- 
cal reasons,  had  become  the  harboring  shelter 
for  the  most  extreme  religious  radicalism.  The 
deadness  of  pre-Evangelical  orthodoxy  had  given 
rise  to  a  wide-spread  acceptance  of  Socinian 
143 


14:4:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

views.  Even  to  this  day  the  name  Presbyterian 
and  the  form  of  government  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  mark  many  Unitarian  places  of  worship. 
The  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  called  into 
play  some  great  minds  among  the  independent 
Socinian  (Unitarian)  and  radical  thinkers  of 
England. 

Greatest  among  these  were  Bentham  (1748- 
1832)  and  Priestley  (1733-1804).  The  influence 
of  these  really  wonderful  men  was  slow  in  mak- 
ing itself  felt.  Indeed,  Bentham  was  only 
recognized  in  England  long  after  he  had  attained 
wide  celebrity  on  the  Continent,  and  has  only 
been  made  known  to  most  English  readers  in- 
directly through  James  Mill  and  his  son  John 
Stuart  Mill.  Priestley's  influence  was  wider 
spread.  But  his  experiments  in  electricity  and 
the  discovery  of  oxygen  had  no  influence  over 
the  mass  of  men,  who  resented  bitterly  his  ad- 
vocacy of  the  French  Revolution  and  his  pro- 
nounced democracy.  Liberalism  in  politics  be- 
gan, however,  slowly  to  mean  hostility  not  only 
to  the  Established  Church,  but  also  to  revelation. 
There  arose  an  intellectual  impatience  with  the 
prevalent  and  narrow  orthodoxy.  Much  of  the 
rejection  of  religious  opinion  by  radicalism  was 
because  religious  opinion  was  crude  and  narrow 
and  only  half  understood  itself. 

Any  estimate  of  Bentham  by  one  not  trained 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  145 

in  law  must  be  more  or  less  superficial.  The 
vast  mass  of  his  writings,  the  complicated 
phraseology,  and  the  obscure  nature  of  the  sub- 
ject of  which  he  treats,  shut  most  men  out  from 
aught  but  a  second-hand  knowledge  of  Ben- 
tham's  opinions.  Yet  his  influence  upon  the 
social  reform  movement,  whose  spring  we  would 
find  in  the  religious  altruism  of  the  revival, 
was  by  no  means  small.  Paley  is  evidence 
that  the  utilitarian  philosophy  is  not  in  itself 
of  necessity  irreligious.  Bentham  made  room 
for  religious  motives  as  those  that  actually  do 
influence  men,  but  not  because  they  have  of 
necessity  objective  reality,  but  only  subjective 
value  to  the  man  thus  influenced.  His  whole 
thinking  was  most  thoroughly  opposed  to  any 
revealed  authority,  or  any  external  sanction  for 
human  conduct.  He  influenced  legislation,  and 
more  particularly,  in  the  judgment  of  those 
best  qualified  to  pronounce,  did  he  give  useful 
form  to  the  great  revision  of  law  made  necessary 
by  the  changes  that  had  come  over  society.  To 
him  as  well  as  to  Sir  Samuel  Eomilly  is  ascribed 
the  praise  for  the  softening  of  the  penal  code, 
and  the  imparting  of  consistency  to  the  many 
changes  of  necessity  going  on  in  the  legal  rev- 
olution. His  philosophy  of  the  "greatest 
happiness  for  the  greatest  number,"  can  have  a 
noble  or  an  ignoble  interpretation.  The  popu- 
10 


146     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

lar  form  of  it,  with  which  all  are  more  or  less 
familiar  is,  of  course,  that  of  John  Stuart  Mill. 
No  one  can  call  his  interpretation  of  that  philos- 
ophy ignoble.  He  says  himself,  in  the  familiar 
passage  from  his  autobiography,  that  in  Ben- 
tham's  system  "  I  now  had  opinions — a  creed, 
a  doctrine,  a  philosophy  in  one  among  the  best 
senses  of  the  word,  a  religion,  in  the  inculcation 
and  diffusion  of  which  could  be  made  the  prin- 
cipal outward  purpose  of  life."  His  father, 
himself  a  clergyman  who  had  abandoned  all 
dogmatic  Christianity,  had  brought  him  up  to 
consider  work  done  for  mankind's  welfare  as  the 
one  thing  worth  living  for,  and  living  for  man- 
kind's welfare  as  the  one  motive  to  real  life. 

It  is  quite  impossible,  in  the  social  progress  of 
England,  to  separate  the  factors  that  go  to  make 
up  that  progress,  and  to  say  this  factor  was  irre- 
ligious and  this  was  religious.  God  alone  judges 
motives  with  accuracy.  Mill,  of  course,  as  is 
known  to  all,  rejected  definitely  dogmatic  Chris- 
tianity. At  first  pure  analytical  reason  seemed 
to  him  enough  to  guide  the  race  in  its  racial  life. 
Later,  and  under  the  influence  of  his  wife,  he 
enlarged  his  list  of  the  motives  that  do  actuate 
men,  and  he  gave  place  for  better  and  worthier 
conceptions  of  even  the  intellectual  life.  He 
remained  true  to-  conscience  and  his  form  of  de- 
finite religion.  He  was  radical  in  the  extreme 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  147 

and  did  not  fear  the  bold  proclamation  of  his 
sincere  convictions.  Early  in  life  his  enthusi- 
asm had  prompted  all  manner  of  plans  for  the 
redemption  quickly  of  the  race  by  argument. 
These  plans  he  had  to  surrender,  but  he  never 
wavered  from  his  ideal  of  life,  and  he  nobly 
strove  for  the  attainment  of  his  ideal. 

There  is  no  ignoring  the  immense  social  im- 
portance of  Mill's  work,  nor  of  the  influence  he 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  religious  world.  From 
differing  stand-points  he  and  Caiiyle  did  more 
to  compel  the  religious  world  to  face  facts  and 
to  think  than  any  other  two  men.  Coleridge,  as 
we  shall  see  later,  had  flung  out  questions  and 
left  them  to  instigate  to  research.  But  men 
easily  ignored  Coleridge.  The  religious  world 
could  not  ignore  John  Stuart  Mill.  Unselfish 
sacrifice  for  principle,  and  almost  Quixotic 
effort  to  make  manifest  his  stern  adherence  to 
duty,  were  more  than  once  illustrated  in  his 
career.  He  refused,  as  is  well-known,  to  canvass 
Westminster  or  pay  anyone  to  canvass  West- 
minster for  him,  and  his  support  of  the  canvass 
for  Bradlaugh  at  last  cost  him  his  seat.  Many 
of  his  theories  are  now  attacked  in  detail ;  but 
it  is  impossible  to  fairly  estimate  the  value  to  a 
religious-social  development  of  such  searching 
anxious  questioning  as  Mill  compelled  Evangel- 
icalism, Broad-Churchmen  and  thinking  Non- 


14:8     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

conformity  to  submit  to.  He  was  distinctly  on 
nobler,  higher  ground  than  even  his  great  fellow- 
reformer  Cobden.  And  he  shared  with  Cobden 
the  transparent  honesty  and  dauntless  courage 
that  made  the  great  free-trader  such  a  power 
for  political  righteousness. 

The  ideal  church  will  do  its  own  doubting, 
very  humbly  and  very  fearlessly,  but  very  faith- 
fully. The  Church,  as  the  first  fervor  of  the 
Methodist  and  Evangelical  awakening  left  it,  was 
however  very  far  from  ideal.  Some  of  its  faults 
were  intellectual,  some  of  them  were  moral. 
The  effect  on  the  better  men  of  Mill's  search- 
ing questioning  cannot  have  been  unwholesome. 
That  many  whose  houses  were  built  upon  the 
sand  suffered  housewreck  is  undoubtedly  to  be 
lamented.  That  many  fell  away  for  a  time  is 
not  to  be  denied.  That  many  others  only  hard- 
ened their  hearts  in  religious  dogmatism  is, 
alas,  also  true.  Yet  there  was  a  need  for  just 
such  earnest  hand  to  hand  work  with  self  as 
Mill  compelled  sober  and  serious  men  to  under- 
take. Nay,  there  is  need  for  it  to-day.  Senti- 
mentalism  is  not  religion  any  more  than  dogma 
is.  Many  were  comforting  their  sinful  souls  in 
the  days  of  misty  Broad  Churchism  and  of 
sentimental  Evangelicalism  with  phrases  that 
had  no  meaning,  and  with  activity  that  had  no 
aim. 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  149 

The  social  significance  of  Mill  for  the  forces 
of  Christianity  was  the  compulsion  laid  upon 
men  to  face  facts.  Cobden's  peace  programme 
appealed  to  religious  sentiment.  Mill  opposed 
it.  It  was,  as  he  saw  it,  trade  selfishness.  For 
Mill  England  stood  for  freedom,  and  her  might, 
power,  wealth,  and  honor  were  nothing  if  Eng- 
land was  not  prepared  to  lay  these  down  for  the 
sake  of  freedom,  even  if  any  European  inter- 
vention cost  her  any  one  or  all  of  these  in  an 
European  war.  The  religious  world  had  to 
stop  and  think.  Her  own  doctrine  of  self-sac- 
rifice must  be  preached  to  her  from  one  whose 
philosophy  was  utilitarian ! 

Ecclesiasticism  has  always  distrusted  democ- 
racy and  so  was  not  offended  at  Mill's  strictures 
on  an  ignorant  democracy,  but  it  gave  many  a 
Broad  Churchman  a  start  to  find  on  what  ground 
Mill  advocated  socialism,  and  to  learn  from  an 
unbeliever  about  socialized  character. 

Fortunate  it  was  for  modern  English  radical- 
ism that  it  was  born  in  so  fruitful  and  so  free 
an  age.  It  never  had  the  bitter  aggressiveness 
that  the  radicalism  of  the  social  democracy  of 
Europe  has  had  engrafted  on  to  it  by  violent 
and  short-sighted  persecution.  Fortunate  it 
was  for  dogmatic  Christianity  that  the  great 
radical  critic  was,  if  so  unsparing,  yet  so  rever- 
ent and  so  lofty  in  his  tone.  The  social  signif- 


150     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

icance  of  the  religious  revival  was  deepened, 
and  the  social  movement  was  made  more  con- 
scious of  its  failures  and  taught  many  weighty 
lessons  by  the  astonishing  grasp  and  powerful 
insight  of  its  greatest  critic. 

There  is  no  connection  between  Mill  as  a 
social  reformer  and  the  religious  movement,  ex- 
cept that  he  was  born  on  the  same  soil  and 
breathed  the  same  atmosphere.  No  one  could 
have  been  more  utterly  kept  from  any  vital 
connection  with  historic  Christianity  than  Mill. 
He  knew  and  valued  Maurice,  and  he  had  a 
powerful  influence  over  many  of  the  younger 
Christian  men.  But  he  worked  out  in  the  sight 
of  God  his  own  salvation,  and  only  God,  who 
can  measure  all  the  factors  that  make  up  the 
tangled  scheme  of  life,  is  his  judge.  But  we 
may  be  thankful  that  in  an  age  tempted  to  mis- 
take words  for  things,  soon  to  be  caught  in  the 
entanglements  of  past  traditions  revived,  there 
was  an  independent  voice — a  challenger  to  call 
men  to  consider  and  make  their  way  straight 
before  their  feet. 

Of  his  own  social  significance  we  have  not 
space  to  speak.  Perhaps  it  would  be  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  hold  the  balance  and  weigh 
his  services  to  social  progress.  They  were 
very  great.  He  saw  many  things  hidden  from 
the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries.  He  saw  the 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  151 

failures  brought  about  by  the  community  not 
reaping  the  benefit  of  the  "  unearned  incre- 
ment." He  advocated  the  ideals  for  Ireland 
that  now  seem  to  promise  prosperity.  He 
heartily  sympathized  with  North  America  in 
her  struggle  for  free  soil.  He  saw  that  with 
socialized  character  the  estimates  now  put  upon 
private  property  must  change.  He  welcomed 
free  discussion,  and  he  himself  introduced  a 
new  tone  in  discussing  socialism.  For  us  his 
chief  meaning  is  the  issue  he  forced  on  Prot- 
estantism in  all  different  phases,  and  the  depth 
and  reality  he  imparted  into  religious-social 
discussion. 

There  died  about  the  time  that  John  Stuart 
Mill  was  born,  a  very  different  type  of  religious 
radical  in  the  person  of  the  great  Priestley. 
Neither  as  a  religious  thinker  nor  yet  as  a 
social  reformer  does  he  belong  directly  in  the 
line  of  our  discussion.  And  yet  as  the  material 
for  these  lectures  has  been  slowly  gathered  it 
was  found  impossible  to  escape  contact  with 
his  enormous  influence. 

As  a  religious  thinker  he  came  of  a  type  of 
Calvinism  with  which  we  have  had  little  to  do 
in  this  quest.  It  was  a  far  freer  and  more  in- 
tellectual type  of  Calvinism  than  the  later 
Evangelical  product.  It  was  fearless  intel- 
lectually at  a  time  when  fearless  intellectuality 


152     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

was  not  altogether  common.  It  must,  however, 
be  confessed  that  it  did  not  always  possess  the 
spiritual  warmth  without  which  intellectuality 
does  little  for  mankind.  There  were  men  like 
Dr.  Doddridge  who  combined  both  elements  to 
a  marked  degree,  and  in  the  academy  kept  by 
Dr.  Doddridge  young  Priestley  began  his  stud- 
ies. He  drifted,  as  many  did  in  that  day,  away 
from  orthodox  phraseology  into  the  vague  semi- 
arianism  that  marked  the  nonconformity  that 
had  not  come  under  the  influence  of  Evan- 
gelicalism. From  that  position  his  clear,  sharp 
thinking  and  exceedingly  dogmatic  temper  soon 
drove  him  into  pronounced  and  dogmatic  So- 
cinianism.  With  neither  his  scientific  services, 
which  were  so  considerable,  nor  with  his  theo- 
logical views  are  we  here  concerned. 

He  was,  however,  of  no  inconsiderable  influ- 
ence on  the  social  development  of  orthodoxy. 
His  views  were  as  extreme  on  the  democratic 
and  radical  side  of  the  governmental  issue  as 
on  the  religious  question.  His  house  was 
wrecked  because  of  his  pronounced  sympathy 
with  the  French  Revolution,  and  many  valuable 
manuscripts  were  destroyed.  But  not  even  a 
howling  mob  could  convert  him  from  his  confi- 
dence in  the  people  educated  and  swayed  not 
by  passion  and  prejudice,  but  by  reason.  The 
Unitarianism  of  modern  English  life  was  largely 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  153 

the  product  of  his  great  powers.  To  Unitarian- 
ism  he  imparted  also  the  aggressive  and  dog- 
matic spirit  that  has  contributed  very  largely  to 
its  decay.  He  sought  refuge  in  America,  but 
even  in  Philadelphia  refused  a  professorship  in 
the  university  lest  it  hamper  his  very  aggressive 
spirit  of  liberty. 

No  view  of  the  social  significance  of  the  re- 
ligious movement  would  be  complete  that  left 
out  of  account  the  enormous  quickening  of 
interest  in  old  theological  problems  as  lines  of 
unfortunate  division  in  the  communal  life.  The 
laxity  of  the  pre-Evangelical  period  permitted 
free  intercourse  and  spiritual  fellowship  between 
men  of  very  different  intellectual  character. 
Yet  it  was  on  the  basis  rather  of  indifference 
than  of  intelligent  toleration  of  disagreement. 
In  the  general  opposition  to  the  Established 
Church  all  Nonconformists  found  themselves 
provided  with  a  common  platform,  and  this 
sense  of  common  wrong  made  them  not  over- 
anxious to  criticise  one  another.  It  was  very 
different  after  the  Evangelical  ardor  began  to 
reach  beyond  the  bounds  of  Methodism  and  one 
class  in  the  community.  Again  men  were 
called  to  face  the  reality  of  their  faith.  This 
was  the  period  of  struggle  between  definite  Uni- 
tarianism  and  orthodoxy. 

To  hundreds  of  dissenting  families  came  the 


154     ENGLISH  RELiaiOUS  MOVEMENTS 

question,  on  what  are  you  building  ?  The  foun- 
dations of  society  were  dragged  into  the  dis- 
cussion. The  French  Eevolution  drew  lines  all 
through  Europe  because  men  had  to  decide  for 
action.  It  was  common  enough  for  men  to 
have  vague  sympathy  with  reform  in  govern- 
ment, and  with  the  oppressed  poor;  but  now 
came  the  question,  how  will  you  stand  ?  So 
also  in  the  religious-social  world,  Priestley 
forced  men  to  say  to  their  souls,  on  what  foun- 
dation are  you  resting?  The  Bible  was  once 
more  studied  not  for  its  theology  only,  but  with 
the  solemn  question,  are  things  as  they  exist 
now  a  divine,  or  a  human,  or  a  satanic  order  ? 
Priestley's  social  dogmatism  affrighted  many, 
his  theological  system  left  many  more  unsatis- 
fied. One  service  he  rendered  in  no  small 
measure:  he  compelled  men  to  search  their 
hearts,  and  to  question  their  formulae,  and  to 
face  facts. 

The  social  significance  of  his  work  was  his 
entire  and  unquestioning  faith  in  a  divine  order. 
In  this  he  was  like  a  little  child.  His  philoso- 
phy of  "necessity"  became  in  some  hands  a 
rigid  materialism.  It  was  not  that  with  Priest- 
ley. Calm  and  confident  he  expected  the  un- 
folding of  that  order  because  he  believed  in  a 
divine  law  and  the  personal  government  of  the 
world  and  human  life.  His  teaching  affected 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  155 

greatly  the  social  development  of  a  later  phase 
of  the  religious  revival. 

Closely  connected  with  this  same  phase,  by 
the  influence  in  a  practical  way  which  he  exert- 
ed over  the  leaders  of  it,  is  the  founder  of  Eng- 
lish socialism,  Robert  Owen,  who  in  1800  took 
charge  of  Mr.  Dale's  mills  at  New  Lanark.  It 
was  one  of  the  deep  and  cruel  misfortunes  to 
the  cause  of  social  advance  that  the  activity  of 
Eobert  Owen  became  intimately  connected  with 
a  false  and  superficial  philosophy  of  life.  His 
secularism  was  not  only  utterly  opposed  to  his 
real  working  creed,  but  his  later  reaction  to  a 
profoundly  irrational  spiritualism  demonstrated 
its  inherent  incapacity  for  either  explaining  the 
phenomena  of  life  or  for  satisfying  the  human 
soul.  No  doubt  one  explanation  for  the  ag- 
gressive secular  character  of  Owen's  philosophy 
was  his  real  ignorance  of  essential  Christianity. 
Wilberforce  came  in  contact  with  Owen  in  1812, 
and  makes  the  following  entry  in  his  journal : 
"  Owen  of  Lanark,  Dale's  son-in-law  and  part- 
ner, breakfasted  with  me,  and  stayed  long  talk- 
ing of  his  plan  of  education,  and  of  rendering 
manufactures  and  morals  compatible."  This 
visit  was  renewed,  we  are  told  in  the  Life  of 
Wilberforce*  and  Mr.  Grant  and  Henry  Thorn- 
ton met  Mr.  Owen  by  appointment.  When  Mr. 

*  Page  356,  Amer.  Ed. 


156     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Owen  was  proceeding  to  detail  his  schemes,  he 
gently  hinted  that  the  ladies  present  might  be 
suffered  to  retire  from  a  discussion  which  must 
prove  far  beyond  their  comprehension.  Mr. 
Wilberforce  eagerly  dissented  from  the  propo- 
sition ;  and  it  was  well  for  Mr.  Owen  that  he 
yielded,  for  he  had  not  read  long  before  "  Grant, 
Henry  Thornton,  and  I  were  all  fast  asleep,  and 
the  despised  ladies  were  his  only  real  audience." 
"  One  of  my  great  principles,  Mr.  Wilberforce," 
said  Owen,  "  is  that  persons  ought  to  place 
themselves  in  the  situation  of  others,  and  act 
as  they  would  wish  themselves  to  be  treated." 
"Is  that  quite  a  new  principle,  Mr.  Owen?" 
Wilberforce  asked.  "  I  think  I  have  read  some- 
thing very  like  it  in  a  book  called  the  New 
Testament."  "Very  possibly  it  may  be  so," 
gravely  responded  Owen. 

Alas,  it  was  not  perhaps  Owen  that  was 
altogether  to  blame  for  not  realizing  that  the 
golden  rule  stood  in  the  New  Testament,  for 
in  the  long  struggle  over  the  factory  act,  in 
which  he  bore  a  valiant  part,  it  was  not  the  book 
to  which  appeal  was  oftenest  made  by  those 
who  favored  "letting  well  enough  alone,"  and 
who  defended  the  principle  of  vested  right  as 
fundamental  to  a  Christian  state. 

The  earnest  sincerity  of  Owen  is  undisputed. 
When,  as  a  prosperous  and  energetic  mill-owner, 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  157 

he  took  charge  of  Dale's  cotton-mill  he  found 
over  ten  thousand  employees,  of  whom  five  hun- 
dred were  children  brought,  at  ages  varying  from 
five  to  six,  from  the  poor-houses  of  Glasgow  and 
Edinburgh.  The  conditions  at  that  mill  were 
not  bad  as  men  then  counted  conditions.  Whole 
families,  however,  slept  in  one-roomed  houses 
without  sanitation,  and  children  worked  from 
twelve  to  fourteen  hours  a  day  simply  for  what 
they  ate  and  drank.  He  at  once  began  to  at- 
tend to  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  houses,  to 
clean  up  the  mills  themselves,  to  build  model 
dwellings,  and  to  treat  the  employees  like  men 
and  women,  and  not  as  cattle. 

He  it  was  who  first  introduced  the  co-opera- 
tive store,  where  the  poor  could  buy  good  arti- 
cles at  a  reasonable  price.  Little  children  ap- 
pealed to  his  pity,  and  he  was  the  founder  in 
England  of  the  infant-school.  He  soon  had 
difficulty  with  his  partners,  for  although  his  mill 
was  abundantly  successful,  they  regarded  many 
of  his  reforms  as  unnecessary.  In  1813  he 
started  a  new  firm,  and  with  Jeremy  Bentham 
and  William  Allen  he  began  an  enterprise  lim- 
ited at  the  outset  to  a  profit  of  five  per  cent. 
Then  he  became  intensely  interested  in  the  fac- 
tory act  of  1819,  which  in  his  judgment  did  not 
go  nearly  far  enough.  He  reported  to  Parlia- 
ment on  the  poor  law  and  pointed  out,  what  all 


158     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

had  later  on  to  admit,  that  there  was  much  seri- 
ous defect  in  both  conception  and  administra- 
tion. Soon  after  this  he  took  up  an  aggressive 
attitude  toward  organized  Christianity,  and  he 
lost  much  of  his  hold  upon  the  reforming  party 
by  his  pronounced  secular  views.  As  we  have 
seen  the  reforms  were  in  the  hands  of  the  pro- 
nounced Evangelicals.  Kobert  Owen  was  a  man 
lacking  in  all  the  education  of  the  schools,  but 
was  intensely  under  the  influence  of  the  altruistic 
spirit.  How  far  he  really  understood  Christi- 
anity in  any  true  understanding  of  the  word  is 
doubtful.  That  he  rejected  much  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  day  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  He 
was  a  clear,  but  not  profound,  thinking  man. 
His  secular  philosophy  was  shallow  in  the  ex- 
treme ;  his  wide  influence  in  this  direction  was 
only  over  those  who,  like  himself,  saw  only  one 
side  of  the  Christian  development.  He  did  a 
great  deal  of  injury  to  social  reform  by  linking 
it  to  his  secularism,  and  identifying  that  reform 
with  a  spirit  of  hostility  to  Christian  thought 
and  feeling.  His  views  became  the  creed  of 
hundreds  of  working-men,  who  knew  his  sacri- 
fices for  their  sake,  and  who  understood  the 
shallow  but  clear  assertions  by  which  Owen 
supported  his  views. 

Owen  became  the  father  of  English  socialism 
by  advancing  schemes  for  the  reconstruction  of 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  159 

all  English  society.  The  whole  industrial  and 
agricultural  life  was  to  come  under  immediate 
communal  control.  Education  was  to  be  com- 
munal after  three  or  four  years  in  the  family 
circle.  Industrial  units  were  to  be  constructed 
of  from  six  to  seven  thousand  souls,  and  these 
were  to  be  linked  together  until  the  whole  civil- 
ized world  was  involved  in  the  industrial  and 
agricultural  union.  All  know  of  the  natural  and 
inevitable  failure  of  his  plans  in  this  country, 
and  how  New  Harmony  had  to  be  abandoned, 
and  his  Welsh  scheme  also  ended  in  disappoint- 
ment. Owen's  dauntless  spirit  was,  however, 
not  cast  down,  and  in  1838  he  started  his  Labor 
Exchange  in  London.  This,  too,  proved  una- 
vailing. He  left  behind  him  a  group  of 
"  Owenites,"  determined  followers  of  his  ideals. 
But  it  was  elsewhere  than  in  England  that  the 
seed  he  planted  was  to  grow  up  to  full  philo- 
sophical completeness.  What  he  left  in  Eng- 
land was  largely  an  ideal  which  the  religious 
movement  he  did  not  understand  was  to  use, 
and  even  to  make  a  popular  and  lasting  element 
in  English  life. 

It  is  a  sad  pity  that  Owen  tried  to  found  a 
"  religion  of  reason,"  or  attempted  to  think 
out  a  philosophy.  He  was  equally  incapable  of 
the  one  or  the  other.  He  was  a  practical  man 
of  affairs.  In  the  ten  years  of  conduct  of  New 


160     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Lanark  he  had  realized  enough  to  buy  out  his 
partners  for  £84,000,  and  he  and  the  new  firm 
made  in  some  four  years  over  £150,000  of 
profits.  Then  he  bought  them  out  for  the 
enormous  sum  of  £114,000  more.  Metternich 
thought  so  much  of  him  as  to  make  most  flat- 
tering overtures  to  him,  and  embodied  much  of 
Owen's  experience  in  the  reconstruction  of  Aus- 
tria. Brougham,  Eomilly,  Zachary  Macaulay, 
and  Lord  Lansdowne  followed  him  in  setting 
up  an  infant-school  at  Westminster.  Had  he 
possessed  more  capacity  for  really  entering  into 
historic  situations,  had  he  had  reasoning  pow- 
ers and  more  patience,  his  influence  would  have 
been  direct  rather  than  confined  to  the  hints 
and  methods  others  have  made  their  own. 

To  appreciate  the  position  of  radicalism  as 
it  now  appears  a  factor  of  importance  in  English 
social  development,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  religious  movement  had  assumed  a  definite 
shape  at  this  time.  It  had  begun  to  harden 
into  the  Methodist  and  Evangelical  sects.  Ours 
it  is  not  to  trace  this  hardening  process.  The 
spiritual  meaning  of  the  religious  movement 
was  the  consciousness  of  direct  contact  of  God 
with  life  in  the  human  soul.  It  was  essentially 
an  "  experience  "  theology  that — so  far  as  the 
Evangelical  movement  had  a  theology — really 
gave  it  a  basis  and  starting-ground. 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  161 

The  fatal  defect  was  the  narrowness  of  the 
experience  upon  which  both  Methodism  and 
Evangelicalism  sought  to  build  again  Christian 
character.  The  conflict  with  Owen  had  made 
them  distrust  all  appeal  to  "reason."  The 
French  Revolution  and  the  proclamation  of  the 
encyclopaedists  still  further  deepened  this  dis- 
trust. For  art  and  literature  as  such  there  grew 
up  a  similar  suspicion,  because  these  seemed  to 
exalt  an  experience  broader  and  far  more  com- 
prehensive than  the  "conversion"  which  was 
the  one  thing  needful  for  the  Evangelical.  The 
sense  of  fellowship  and  social  unity  that  was  a 
most  precious  fruit  of  the  awakening  began  to 
degenerate  into  an  exclusive  sectarianism.  Fel- 
lowship became  latent.  Brotherhood  began  to 
seek  as  its  basis  catch-words  and  phrases  that 
had  no  longer  their  real  power. 

Social  secularism  saw  the  weakness  of  the 
Evangelical  attitude.  Popular  education  ex- 
tended the  reading  of  the  working  classes. 
Modern  science  was  a  new  revelation,  and  its 
dazzling  gleam  hid  for  the  time  all  other  light. 
One  has  only  to  gaze  for  a  little  steadily  at  the 
lime-light,  and  diffused  sunshine  will  seem  dark- 
ness to  the  blinded  eye.  New  views  of  social 
duty  and  glorious  visions  of  popular  freedom 
and  progress  had  been  the  fruit  of  the  social 
awakening  of  the  French  Revolution's  earlier 
11 


162     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

period.  In  the  meantime  the  agitation  for  re- 
form had  awakened  a  sense  of  independent  po- 
litical power.  Most  unfortunately  the  Church, 
as  standing  for  Christianity,  was  widely  and 
truly  believed  to  be  as  a  whole  opposed  to  the 
social  aspirations  of  the  nation.  Not  even  the 
social  activity  of  the  Evangelical  and  Dissent- 
ing parties  saved  Christianity  from  the  charge 
of  being  obstructive  and  reactionary.  The 
Evangelical  parties  became  identified  rather 
with  the  triumphant  bourgeoisie,  and  even  to 
be  hated  and  feared  on  this  account.  English 
secularism  was  never  grossly  materialistic,  it 
was  "  a  religion  of  reason,"  a  "  worship  of  prog- 
ress," often  only  a  blind  opposition  to  abuses 
that  ought  to  have  been  opposed. 

The  radicalism  of  Bentham  as  represented  by 
James  Mill,  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  others,  never 
seems  to  have  sunk  very  deeply  into  the  popular 
mind.  At  the  same  time  the  general  critical 
acumen  of  the  working-class  had  greatly  in- 
creased. They  could  no  longer  be  subdued  by 
religious  formulae,  no  matter  how  earnestly  pre- 
sented. The  uneducated  workingmen  became, 
as  Carlyle  said,  more  critical  than  the  educated 
unworkingmen.  The  burden  of  taxation,  the 
exposure  of  government  methods  during  the 
reform  and  free  trade  struggles,  the  growing 
faith  in  themselves,  made  the  working-classes 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  163 

impatient  of  the  religiosity  into  which  Evan- 
gelicalism was  fast  drifting. 

The  strength  of  the  religious  movement  had 
been  in  its  contact  with  real  life,  and  its  clear- 
cut,  definite  statements  had  been  of  great  use  in 
dealing  with  men  of  by  no  means  deeply  inquir- 
ing minds,  but  with  a  very  real  heart  hunger. 

The  Evangelical  systems  were  at  least  very 
easily  stated  if  not  so  easily  defended.  A 
few  strong  proof-texts  gave  them  the  proper 
credentials.  They  appealed  to  obvious  reali- 
ties, and  gave  proper  emphasis  to  much  neg- 
lected sides  of  truth.  Sin,  grace,  and  redemp- 
tion formed  their  theme,  and  the  relationships 
which  constituted  the  system  never  wholly  ob- 
scured the  great  facts  of  religious  experience. 
Their  very  incisive  narrowness  gave  them  power 
over  certain  classes  of  not  widely  informed  nor 
very  sympathetic  hearers ;  and  others  accepted 
the  systems,  not  on  careful  examination  of  them, 
but  on  the  not  unnatural  ground  of  their  evident 
and  tremendous  power.  Evangelicalism  was 
from  the  beginning  largely  a  lay  movement. 
Many  of  its  ablest  preachers  and  workers  had 
had  no  adequate  theological  or  philosophic 
training,  and  the  habit  readily  grew  up  of  con- 
demning any  such  preparation  for  preaching 
the  "simple  gospel."  The  systems  were  first 
read  into  the  Bible  and  then  easily  again  read 


164:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

out  of  it.  Whether  these  systems  were  Calvin- 
istic  in  color  or  Arminian  made  little  differ- 
ence, and  after  the  first  heats  of  controversy 
were  over  few  took  pains  to  really  inquire  which 
had  scripture  as  authority,  or  whether  both 
lacked  that  necessary  credential.  But  men 
more  insistent  upon  thorough  inquiry  and  of 
broader  sympathies  could  not  rest  satisfied  with 
these  Evangelistic  systems,  which  had  neither 
the  support  of  antiquity,  as  they  constantly  as- 
sumed, nor  of  the  scriptures  to  which  they  ap- 
pealed. Radicalism  found  the  popular  religious 
formulae  an  easy  mark,  and  in  showing  up  their 
weakness  was  very  apt  to  suppose  it  had  ex- 
ploded all  religion. 

The  social  significance  of  radical  thought  was, 
in  fact,  an  emphasis  upon  conscience  and  an 
argument  that  the  great  motives  of  human  life 
are  "  I  ought,"  and  "  I  must  because  I  ought." 
Owen's  activity  was  the  fruit  of  the  humanita- 
rian and  philanthropic  activity  that  proceeds 
directly,  not  out  of  the  dogmas  of  Christianity, 
but  out  of  its  revived  life.  His  doctrine  that 
character  depended  upon  circumstances,  and 
that  all  men  had  to  do  was  to  improve  the  cir- 
cumstances and  good  character  would  result, 
could  not  confessedly  rest  upon  experience  up 
to  the  present,  because  all  existing  evil  is  the  re- 
sult of  acknowledged  bad  circumstances.  So  it 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  165 

must  rest  on  faith  in  good  circumstances,  and 
men's  faith  finds  a  stronger  basis  in  resting 
upon  the  interaction  of  improving  character  and 
improving  circumstances.  Moreover,  Owen  was 
himself  an  argument  for  the  vast  superiority  of 
character  over  circumstance.  The  main  trouble 
was  the  identification  by  radicalism,  as  well  as 
by  large  sections  of  the  religious  world  of  re- 
ligion with  ecclesiastical  and  dogmatic  systems 
more  or  less  defensible,  but  after  all  is  said  not 
belonging  to  the  essentials  of  the  spiritual  life. 

The  rising  historic  spirit  was  already  threat- 
ening these  systems.  The  felt  antagonism  exist- 
ing between  lofty  ideals  and  the  actual  ideals 
that  evidently  animated  these  systems  turned 
the  hearts  of  aspiring  radicalism  away  from  ex- 
ternal Christianity.  The  perversion  of  State 
Establishments  to  the  maintenance  of  indefensi- 
ble positions  never  went  after  1688  to  quite  the 
same  lengths  in  England  as  elsewhere.  This  was 
in  large  measure  due  to  the  peculiar  position  of 
the  Whig  party  to  the  Church,  and  to  the  neces- 
sity later  on  of  a  constant  appeal  to  large  bodies 
of  Nonconformists  outside  the  established  sys- 
tem. At  the  same  time  the  unorganized,  and  to 
a  large  degree  unrepresented,  democracy  found 
itself  consciously  face  to  face  with  an  aristocratic 
government  divided  into  two  sections  called 
Whig  and  Tory,  or  Liberal  and  Conservative. 


166     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

The  Church  was  indeed  divided  between  Whigs 
and  Tories,  but  democracy  found  itself  largely 
left  without  either  in  its  councils  or  its  activity. 
The  forms  of  Dissent  that  ministered  to  a  large 
number  of  the  more  humble  classes  did  not 
command  the  intellectual  respect  of  thoughtful 
working-men.  This  was  at  a  time  also  when 
the  conditions  were  pressing  hardly  upon  the 
laboring-classes.  War  with  its  heavy  burden 
had  greatly  increased  all  taxation,  and  very 
much  disturbed  the  economic  condition.  Hun- 
dreds of  working-men  were  being  displaced  by 
machinery  and  found  themselves  in  competition 
with  mere  children.  Utterly  unregulated  hours 
of  labor,  and  periodical  intervals  of  overwork 
and  idleness  bore  hardly  on  great  masses  of 
factory  workers.  Discontent  was  abroad.  The 
reform  bill  greatly  disappointed  the  manual 
laborers.  Their  popular  hero  Owen  voiced  their 
despair  over  the  changes  that  had  taken  place. 
The  Church  was  seen  by  hundreds  to  be  but 
one  of  the  many  props  for  the  maintenance  of 
an  existing  condition  no  man  dared  to  defend 
save  in  detail ;  which,  on  the  whole,  was  too 
dark  to  inspire  anyone  with  courage.  No  won- 
der radicalism  made  great  headway  among  men, 
who  saw  in  its  doubts  and  denials  so  many 
blows  at  an  order  and  a  set  of  opinions  they 
had  learned  to  hate. 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  167 

Trades-unions  were  beginning  to  absorb  also 
the  social  energy  of  the  working-classes.  Be- 
tween organized  Christianity  and  the  trades- 
union  there  has  never  been  open  conflict  in 
England.  Yet  there  existed  then,  as  there  ex- 
ists now,  much  feeling  of  suspicion.  Nor  is  this 
wholly  unwarranted  by  the  facts.  The  Church 
is  a  social  organization.  Its  mission  is  to  trans- 
form the  community  and  to  turn  and  overturn 
until  the  law  of  God  is  the  law  of  man.  It 
appeals  to  the  social  instinct  and  seeks  to  sat- 
isfy it.  The  old  agapce  or  love-feasts ;  the 
entertainments  of  the  American  church;  the 
circles  and  societies  of  organized  Christianity 
are  all  the  marks  of  this  social  character.  Out- 
side organizations,  such  as  lodges,  fraternities, 
trades-unions,  and  other  combinations  for  social 
purposes  stand  in  a  sense  as  rivals  of  the 
organized  Church  in  satisfying  this  awakened 
want.  Hence  more  or  less  antagonism  has 
always  sprung  up  between  the  trades-union 
and  the  Church.  This  antagonism  was  pecul- 
iarly outspoken  in  the  beginning  of  trades- 
unionism,  and  gave  radicalism  in  politics  a 
good  excuse  for  radicalism  in  religion. 

The  chief  temptation  for  Christ  on  the  mount 
was  to  obtain  power  by  bowing  to  it.  To  this 
temptation  the  Homan  Church  yielded  when 
she  sold  herself  for  temporal  authority.  To 


168     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

this  worship  Protestantism  was  tempted  also 
to  yield,  and  did  in  large  measure  yield.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  how- 
ever, it  was  wealth  more  than  political  power 
that  tempted  the  Church.  The  working-men 
felt  instinctively  the  surrender.  For  them 
reforming  clubs,  chartist  gatherings,  trades- 
unions,  and  political  debating  circles  promptly 
began  to  take  the  place  that  the  social  activities 
of  the  Church  might  have  filled. 

Radicalism  became  as  jealous  of  the  Church 
as  the  Church  was  scornful  of  radicalism.  In 
the  country  the  Evangelical  revival  still  con- 
tinued its  organizing  work  long  after  radicalism 
had  completely  undermined  it,  to  all  appear- 
ances, in  the  city.  Thorold  Rogers  gives  this 
striking  testimony  to  the  Primitive  Methodists 
and  their  work  in  organizing  the  forces  long 
before  organized  in  the  town.  He  is  no  very 
friendly  critic  of  religious  forces,  hence  his 
testimony  has  double  value.  He  says,  "The 
heads  of  the  trades-union  in  towns  can  summon 
their  men  speedily;  and  take  action,  if  action 
seems  desirable,  promptly.  But  it  is  far  more 
difficult  to  manipulate  the  scattered  elements  of 
an  agricultural  union.  .  .  .  I  do  not  believe 
that  the  mass  of  peasants  could  have  been  moved 
at  all,  had  it  not  been  for  the  organization  of  the 
Primitive  Methodists,  a  religious  system  which, 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  169 

as  far  as  I  have  seen  its  working,  has  done 
more  good  with  scanty  means,  and  perhaps,  in 
some  persons'  eyes,  with  grotesque  appliances 
for  devotion,  than  any  other  religious  agency. 
I  have  often  found  that  the  whole  character  of 
a  country  parish  has  been  changed  for  the  bet- 
ter by  the  efforts  of  those  rustic  missionaries, 
who  possess  many  of  the  qualities,  and  have 
produced  not  a  little  of  the  discipline  which  the 
preaching  friars  of  the  thirteenth,  and  the 
Lollard  Bible-men  of  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries  displayed  or  enforced.  I  be- 
lieve it  is  true  that  all  successful  religious  move- 
ments have  aimed  at  heightening  the  morality 
and  improving  the  material  condition  of  those 
they  have  striven  to  influence."  * 

The  work  of  social  organization  of  the  work- 
ing-men for  their  economic  and  material  im- 
provement was  as  directly  within  the  province 
of  the  Established  Church  of  the  land  which 
these  working-men  supported,  as  the  education 
of  children  in  India  and  the  relieving  the 
miseries  of  the  Zenana.  But  this  work  the 
Church  was  leaving  wholly  undone.  Radical- 
ism became,  and  naturally  became,  the  religion 
of  the  town  working-man.  For  his  union  or 
political  club  he  made  wondrously  heavy  sacri- 
fices. For  the  good  of  his  class  he  entered  into 
*  Work  and  Wag-es,  p.  616. 


170     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

alliances  that  many  times  cost  him  dearly.  In 
these  organizations  the  altruistic  energies  found 
some  scope,  and  the  negations  of  secularism 
became  sacred  dogmas,  intimately  connected 
with  his  own  mental  and  spiritual  develop- 
ment. 

It  was  a  tremendous  loss  to  the  working- 
classes  that  there  should  have  been  this  great 
estrangement,  and  a  still  more  momentous  loss 
to  the  Church  that  she  should  have  failed  in 
the  very  beginning  to  have  realized,  even  more 
fully,  the  need  there  was  of  her  mediatorial 
character.  The  pretension  to  priesthood  of  a 
class  is  a  huge  and  blasphemous  mockery  if  all 
Christians  do  not  feel  that  they  are  priests  unto 
God,  forever  presenting  the  world's  wants  be- 
fore the  throne  of  grace,  and  forever  holding  up 
the  grace  of  God  in  the  vigorous  proclamations 
of  a  ceaseless  activity. 

Never  has  organized  Christianity  recovered 
fully  her  lost  opportunity.  That  there  must 
ever  be  unspiritual  and  unenlightened  masses 
of  men  while  the  Church  has  a  militant  work 
to  do  is  what  must  be  expected.  The  sad  part 
of  radicalism  was  the  acceptance  by  spiritual 
men  of  propositions  directly  subversive  of  all 
the  historic  basis  upon  which  spiritual  life 
has  stood.  With  scoffing,  defiant,  irreligious 
radicalism  the  Church  ought  to  gently  and 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  171 

tenderly  contend.  Alas,  that  she  should  ever 
be  put,  as  she  has  been  more  than  once,  in 
the  position  of  contending  against  spiritually 
minded  men  for  wrongs  she  should  have  been 
the  first  to  point  out.  But  it  was  the  old  story. 
The  Samaritan  outcast  was  more  a  neighbor 
to  the  down-trodden  and  unprotected  working- 
man,  when  priest  and  levite  passed  by.  It  was 
thus  that  Chartism  took  on  its  distinctly  negative 
and  secular  aspect,  and  became  the  organizing 
inspiration  for  the  working-men  who  believed 
themselves,  with  much  justice,  to  have  been 
betrayed  by  the  reform  of  1832.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  movement  itself  of  a  secular 
character.  They  asked  only  for  (1)  annual  par- 
liaments ;  (2)  universal  suffrage ;  (3)  vote  by 
ballot;  (4)  abolition  of  the  property  qualifica- 
tion for  membership  in  the  House  of  Commons ; 
(5)  payment  of  members ;  and  (6)  equal  elec- 
toral districts.  The  methods  that  unrepresented 
classes  always  take  to  make  known  their  wants 
are  stormy.  This  Macaulay  points  out  in  a 
speech  on  the  Eeform  Bill  of  1832.  "We  drive 
over  to  the  side  of  revolution  those  whom  we 
shut  out  from  power  ; "  *  and  again  in  1832  he 
pointed  out  that  mobs  of  Madrid  "assembled 
before  the  royal  palace,  forced  their  King,  their 
absolute  King,  to  appear  in  the  balcony,  and 
*  Speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  March,  1831. 


172     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

exacted  from  him  a  promise  that  lie  would  dis- 
miss an  obnoxious  minister."  "If  there  is  any 
country  in  the  world  where  pure  despotism  ex- 
ists, that  country  is  Turkey;  and  yet  there  is 
no  country  in  the  world  where  the  inhabitants 
of  the  capital  are  so  much  dreaded  by  the  gov- 
ernment." The  Keform  Bill  of  1832  had  indeed 
admitted  the  wealthiest  middle  classes  of  the 
growing  towns  to  the  franchise.  It  had  done 
useful  service  by  abolishing  fifty-six  rotten  bor- 
oughs, or  seats  that  simply  represented  the 
wishes  of  wealthy  individuals.  From  thirty 
more  it  took  away  half  their  representation.  It 
gave  to  counties  fifty-six  additional  representa- 
tives, and  gave  the  wholly  unrepresented  cities 
of  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Leeds,  and  thirty- 
nine  towns,  seats  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  basis  of  the  franchise  was  made  a  ten- 
pound  leasehold  for  boroughs,  and  the  county 
franchise  was  given  to  all  leaseholders  and 
copy-holders.  But  as  yet  the  laboring  classes 
were  without  a  voice.  They  therefore  made 
their  wants  known  by  stormy  meetings,  and  at 
last  were  to  gather  together  and  present  before 
the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons  the  great  pe- 
tition for  the  passing  of  the  People's  Charter. 
The  bitterness  was  intense.  With  some  justice 
the  working-men  felt  themselves  betrayed.  The 
great  middle  classes  had  had  their  earnest  and 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM  173 

hearty  support  all  through  the  stormy  Eeform 
Bill  agitation.  But  now  that  these  had  gotten 
what  they  wanted,  all  further  efforts  were  re- 
garded as  noxious  disturbance  of  the  peace.  In 
fact  it  was  said  by  one  of  the  reform  leaders  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  that  further  agitation 
would  be  a  betrayal  of  those  who  had  obtained 
the  passing  of  the  act.  Moreover,  as  we  saw, 
Owen  was  instilling  into  the  minds  of  large 
classes  of  men,  the  economic  views  that  have, 
under  a  thousand  different  garbs,  been  roughly 
classed  as  socialistic.  He  linked  these  teach- 
ings with  a  "  rational  religion  "  that  was  closely 
akin  to  the  systems  to  which  Comte  has  given 
form.  Both  Chapel  and  Church  were  largely 
hostile  to  the  Chartist  movement.  The  Chapel 
because  it  had  largely  gained  what  it  wanted, 
and  none  are  so  conservative  in  temper  as  re- 
formers who  have  carried  their  particular  meas- 
ure of  reform.  The  Church  was  hostile  because 
still  under  the  dominion  of  the  Tory  squire  and 
county  magnate;  and,  almost  fiercely  opposed 
to  any  change,  it  was  filled  with  insensate  wrath 
at  the  Liberalism  that  was  identified  with  free 
thought  and  anti-clericalism. 

There  is  no  need  to  describe  again  the  oft- 
told  panic  in  London,  the  closing  of  the  bridges, 
the  filling  of  the  streets  with  soldiers,  the  mis- 
erable throng  whose  elements  were  too  hetero- 


174     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

geneous  to  display  the  real  force  of  the  popular 
discontent,  and  the  miserable  fiasco  on  Ken- 
nington  Common.  The  Duke  of  "Wellington 
commanded  London,  and  massed  his  soldiers. 
But  only  a  rabble  of  50,000  gathered,  and  they 
dropped  silently  away  after  the  petition  had 
been  sent,  without  a  procession,  to  the  House  of 
Commons. 

The  working-men  felt  themselves  deserted. 
They  distrusted  even  the  party  of  corn-law  re- 
peal under  Cobden  and  Bright,  and  O'Connor 
entered  into  serious  debate  on  the  subject.  The 
secularism  that  had  been  instilled  by  many  of 
the  radicals  found  a  fine  and  fruitful  soil.  Every 
institution  was  more  or  less  distrusted  and  at- 
tacked. The  second  ^Revolution  in  France  and 
the  disturbances  all  over  Europe  in  1848,  made 
sympathetic  disturbances  natural  in  England; 
but  the  main  disaster  of  the  Chartist  movement, 
as  of  radicalism  in  reform  generally,  was  the 
sense  of  dreary  isolation  felt  by  many  of  the 
best  spirits  in  England  in  their  reform  efforts, 
and  the  distinct  gulf  that  yawned  between  or- 
ganized Christian  feeling  and  the  wounded  spir- 
its of  those  who,  no  one  now  denies,  had  great 
hardships  to  complain  of,  and  were  in  need  of 
wise  and  tender  sympathy  and  guidance. 


LECTUEE  IV. 

THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT 

IT  was  at  a  moment  of  great  social  strain  that 
in  a  new  phase  the  religious  movement  again 
made  itself  felt.  The  organization  and  devel- 
opment of  England's  constitutional  democracy 
did  not  come  without  struggle.  Had  George 
III.  been  a  really  strong  man  and  shared  the 
feelings  of  many  of  his  most  powerful  subjects, 
a  strong  reaction  might  easily  have  been  set  on 
foot  against  the  claims  of  the  country  for  Par- 
liamentary change.  And  in  the  name  of  law 
and  order,  during  the  troubled  years  of  1838- 
48,  under  a  less  wise  ruler  and  with  a  little  less 
sympathy  for  the  suffering,  it  would  have  been 
easy  to  greatly  limit  the  right  of  public  meeting 
and  political  agitation.  Happily  for  the  larger 
cause  of  human  freedom,  the  panic  of  1848  was 
only  temporary.  Many  things  combined  to 
allay  distrust.  England  became  more  and  more 
prosperous.  The  loss,  in  fact,  of  the  American 
Colonies  had  formed  the  beginning  of  a  new 
colonial  career,  founded  on  much  more  lasting 
principles  than  conquest  and  force.  Australia 
175 


176     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

and  the  development  of  India,  the  enormous 
growth  of  foreign  commerce,  the  unquestioned 
supremacy  at  sea,  gave  England  a  proud  place 
in  the  world's  history  at  this  time. 

It  was  inevitable  that  these  points  of  contact 
with  the  larger  world  should  now  do  for  England 
what  similarly  enlarged  contact  had  done  for  it 
in  the  age  of  Elizabeth.  The  intellectual  awak- 
ening of  the  nineteenth  century  began  with  an 
outburst  of  song  and  gave  to  the  world  a  litera- 
ture that  in  breadth,  variety,  purity,  and  force, 
is  second  only  to  the  Elizabethan  period  in 
English  history,  and  has  no  rival  in  the  world's 
history  save  in  Athens  at  the  time  of  Pericles. 
Contact  with  the  thought  of  Germany  introduced 
new  elements  into  the  religious  thinking  of  the 
age.  The  very  spirit  and  tone  of  the  questions 
men  began  to  ask  themselves  struck  at  the  nar- 
row dogmatism  of  the  second-growth  Evangeli- 
calism that  claimed  the  religious  world  for  itself. 
Coleridge  (1772-1834)  and  Wordsworth  (1780- 
1850)  began  life  as  violent  social  reformers. 
The  dreams  of  a  "  Pandiocracy "  in  America 
were  never  realized  by  the  wayward,  erratic 
Coleridge.  Nor,  indeed,  were  many  of  the 
dreams  of  his  restless,  unsatisfied  ambition  ever 
fulfilled.  He  constantly  made  plans,  any  one  of 
which  would  have  been  a  life-work  for  the  or- 
dinary genius ;  but,  like  Michael  Angelo,  his 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT     177 

work  he  largely  left  full  of  massive  promise  and 
suggestion,  but  strangely  incomplete  and  tantal- 
izing. Yet  it  was  a  splendid  thing  for  Eng- 
land's life  that  at  a  time  when  dogmatism  and 
traditional  ways  of  thought  began  to  alienate 
the  masses  of  men,  more  particularly  the  men 
that  worked  with  their  hands — the  great  indus- 
trial army  that  had  sprung  like  a  giant  from  the 
soil — that  at  this  time  men  favoring  change,  im- 
patient with  the  tyrannies  of  their  time,  thirst- 
ing for  larger  life  and  nobler  manhood  for  the 
nation,  were  yet  under  the  spell  of  the  deep  re- 
ligious spirit  that  pervaded  England.  France 
knew  the  violence  of  the  unchained  passions  of 
men.  It  was  not  because  Englishmen  were  less 
narrow  or  less  violent  that  like  scenes  were  not 
enacted  on  her  soil.  The  explanation  of  the 
quietness  of  England's  revolution  is  that  the 
working-men  found  sympathetic  leadership,  and 
that  religious  thought  was  social  and  economic 
in  the  hour  of  England's  stress  and  peril.  That 
this  was  the  case  is  in  large  part  due  to  the 
questionings  of  Coleridge. 

Principal  Tulloch,  in  his  admirable  lectures 
on  Eeligious  Thought  in  Britain  During  the  Nine- 
teenth Century*  appears  to  us  to  lay  too  much 
emphasis  upon  the  positive  contributions  of  the 
strange  poet-theologian.  The  thoughts  that 

*  New  York,  1886. 
12 


178     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Coleridge  flung  into  the  arena  were  a  kind  of 
challenge  to  thinking  men.  But  the  positive 
answers  were  gained,  not  from  Coleridge,  but 
from  the  source  he  gained  so  much  from,  name- 
ly, from  Germany.  He  raised  the  questions  of 
Biblical  criticism  and  authority  which  men  only 
attempted  to  answer  when  they  had  become 
familiar  with  Kant  and  German  historical  criti- 
cism. He  flung  out  his  suggestions  about  a  na- 
tional church  at  a  time  when  thinking  minds 
were  dissatisfied  with  the  individualistic  and 
low  conception  then  rife  about  the  Church. 
But  he  gave  no  clear  solution  of  the  problem  ; 
he  would  perhaps  have  done  no  proportionate 
amount  of  good  had  he  given  answers.  Men 
had  again  to  awake  and  ask  themselves  a  great 
multitude  of  questions  that  Evangelicalism  had 
never  raised. 

It  was  normal  and  right  tlmt  the;  early  enthu- 
siasm of  the  religious^  movement  should  fling 
itself  upon  philanthropy  aid  reform.  The  un- 
reflecting character  of  this  earnestness,  the 
straightforward  way  in  which  abuses  that  lay  in 
the  clear  sight  of  men  were  attacked  and  desper- 
ately grappled  with,  mark  the  unreflecting  pe- 
riod of  the  awakening.  When,  however,  the 
movement  became  wider  and  deeper,  and  men's 
minds  were  as  thoroughly  awakened  as  their 
hearts,  there  came  the  inevitable  intellectual 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      179 

crisis,  sad  traces  of  which  many  bore  to  their 
graves.  The  foundations  upon  which  Evangeli- 
calism supposed  itself  to  rest  had  to  undergo  the 
test  of  sober  examination.  The  sharp  and  re- 
peated attacks  of  radical  thought  compelled  men 
to  stand  on  the  defensive.  Nor  could  Evangel- 
icalism hold  its  own  in  this  rough  and  tumble 
intellectual  battle.  With  pain  and  sorrow  men 
saw  their  most  cherished  formulae  unable  to 
stand  the  shock  of  critical  examination.  Badi- 
calism  granted  no  unexamined  premises,  and 
demanded  reasons  for  wha't  Evangelicalism  as- 
sumed would  never  be  questioned. 

Moreover,  the  living  experiences  of  the  early 
movement  had  hardened  into  more  or  less  im- 
perfect customs,  dogmas,  and  unquestioned 
authorities.  There  is,  however,  no  transferring 
the  authority  of  a  vital  experience  to  another 
soul.  You  may  and  should  bear  witness  to  the 
truth  that  has  moved  you,  but  the  same  truth 
may  in  very  different  garb  have  power  over 
others,  who  even  deny  that  truth  as  you  state  it 
in  words. 

The  danger  to  England's  religious  life  was 
the  identification  of  religion  with  either  one  of 
the  phases  best  known  in  the  beginning  of  the 
century.  The  formalism  of  the  Established 
Church  was  set  off  to  some  degree  by  the  active 
but  shallow  Evangelicalism  that  pervaded  one 


180     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

wing  of  it,  and  nearly  all  Dissenting  churches. 
In  men's  impatience  with  stupid  and  selfish  con- 
servatism there  was  danger  that  even  thinking 
men  should  identify  religion  with  mere  reaction, 
intellectual  and  political. 

This  is  seen  in  the  early  work  of  Wordsworth, 
and  the  revolt  of  Shelley  and  Byron  furnishes 
evidence  of  the  drift  toward  an  irreligious  de- 
mocracy. There  were  none  in  the  ranks  of 
Evangelicalism  fitted  to  guide  this  wayward, 
searching  generation  in  its  intellectual  seeking 
for  some  highest  good.  "Whatever  m  ay  be  the  the- 
ological importance  of  Coleridge — and  this  is  not 
small — his  influence  was  rather  suggestive  than 
directly  constructive.  Moreover,  the  awakened 
social  aspirations  demanded  a  social  sympathy 
he  was  not  in  a  position  to  give. 

Liberalism  began  in  the  minds  of  many  to  as- 
sume a  form  dangerous  not  only  to  the  Church 
as  a  national  institution,  but  to  organized  Chris- 
tianity. The  struggle  over  subscription  to  the 
articles  for  entrance  and  honors  at  the  univer- 
sities was  resisted  with  a  heat  and  violence  that 
only  this  pressing  danger,  as  it  seemed  to  earn- 
est men,  can  explain.  The  utter  secularization 
of  life  and  education  seemed  to  many  at  this 
time  the  goal  toward  which  the  whole  movement 
tended.  At  this  point  two  distinct  movements 
began  to  make  articulate  the  religious  life  for 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      181 

which  Evangelicalism  was  no  longer  a  large 
enough  expression.  Both  of  these  movements 
were  animated  by  the  intense  social  feeling  that 
characterized  the  Evangelical  Kevival  through- 
out. The  two  movements  were  marked  by  an 
intense  intellectual  activity.  But  one  was  in 
contact  with  the  larger  outlook  of  foreign  Prot- 
estantism, the  other  found  itself  in  sympathy 
with  the  treasures  of  religious  feeling  expressed 
in  the  Catholic  development  of  Southern  Eu- 
rope. Were  we  tracing  the  intellectual  side 
of  this  development,  it  would  be  impossible 
to  pass  over  the  work  of  men  like  Whately, 
Arnold  of  Eugby,  Hampton,  Dean  Stanley,  Mil- 
man,  and  Thorwall,  because  on  the  purely  intel- 
lectual side  they  gave  vast  assistance  to  men 
struggling  with  the  evident  contradictions  be- 
tween modern  criticism,  history,  and  philosophy 
and  the  systems  of  religious  belief  common  in 
their  day.  But  the  social  perplexity  was  the 
highway  along  which  liberal  opinion  seemed  to 
advance  to  abrupt  antagonism  with  the  ecclesi- 
asticism  and  theology  that  stood  for  Christi- 
anity. Even  thoughtful  and  acute  men  consid- 
ered Christianity  hopelessly  reactionary.  So 
also  the  services  that  Evangelicalism  was  doing 
in  Parliament  were  considered  by  advanced  po- 
litical economists  as  reactionary,  and  the  fact 
that  in  the  advancement  of  the  factory  acts  the 


182     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Evangelical  party  had  to  largely  rely  on  the 
landlords  and  squires  in  opposition  to  the  manu- 
facturers lent  color  to  this  view.  Evangelicalism 
stood  for  Christianity,  and  was  undoubtedly  at 
this  stage  of  its  life  inclined  to  reaction. 

The  great  mass  of  liberals  shared  this  misap- 
prehension, and  to  remove  it  men  like  Whately 
contributed  much  on  the  intellectual  but  little  on 
the  social  side.  The  now  threatening  danger  to 
English  life  was  the  identification  of  all  social 
change  with  extreme  radicalism  in  religion. 
The  dominant  position  of  Priestley  in  wide  non- 
conforming  circles,  and  the  extreme  neglect  on 
the  part  of  large  sections  of  the  English  clergy 
of  obvious  duties  greatly  strengthened  this  im- 
pression. 

At  this  point  Frederick  Dennison  Maurice  en- 
tered into  English  life  with  larger  conceptions 
of  what  Christianity  really  was,  and  with  pro- 
found views  on  the  relation  of  the  Church  to 
working-men.  These  as  a  class  were  without 
doubt  neglected.  Gladstone  speaks  in  no  meas- 
ured terms  of  the  existing  conditions.  He  says 
of  this  time  (1830) :  "  Taking  together  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  poor  and  the  laboring  classes  (es- 
pecially from  the  town  churches),  the  mutila- 
tions and  blockages  of  the  fabricks  (sic — ru- 
brics ?),  the  baldness  of  the  services,  the  elab- 
orate horrors  of  the  so-called  music 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      183 

and  above  all  the  coldness  and  indifference  of 
the  lounging  or  sleeping  congregations,  our  ser- 
vices were  probably  without  a  parallel  in  the 
world  for  their  debasement."  *  Moreover,  as  we 
have  seen,  working-men  had  found  in  an  anti- 
Christian  radicalism  a  substitute  for  the  en- 
thusiasm of  religion.  The  danger  was  great 
that  the  Church  Establishment  should  make  the 
mistake  that  has  been  made  in  Europe,  of  such 
an  alliance  between  the  Church  and  the  conser- 
vative elements  in  the  government  that  the 
working-classes  should  be  left  in  an  attitude 
of  positive  hostility  to  the  Church,  and  a  ready 
prey  for  a  dangerous  and  extravagant  radi- 
calism. 

In  Maurice  the  noble  aspirations  of  the  work- 
ing-classes found  an  advocate  and  an  inspi- 
ration. Quietly,  year  after  year,  he  found 
his  work  in  the  Working-men's  College,  Great 
Ormond  Street,  tell  more  and  more.  There  he 
attracted  some  of  the  noblest  of  the  thinking 
men  in  English  life.  From  him  went  out  the 
impulses  that  made  the  work  of  Kingsley  tell  so 
much  all  over  England.  Few  listened  to  his 
sermons;  perhaps  few  more  read  his  books, 
but  among  these  few  were  Tennyson,  Carlyle, 
Kingsley,  Kobertson  of  Brighton,  and  a  band 

*  The  Church  of  England  and  Ritualism.  Contemporary 
Revieiu,  October,  1874. 


184:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

of  less  known  but  choice  spirits,  whose  zeal 
saved  thousands  for  a  rational  and  self-con- 
sistent even  if  often  a  vague,  system  of  Chris- 
tian faith.  The  social  significance  of  this 
phase  of  the  religious  movement  lies  not  alone 
in  the  co-operation  systems  that  sprang  out  of 
the  movement  immediately,  or  the  Christian 
Socialism  that  the  party  adopted  as  its  creed, 
weighty  as  has  been  the  influence  of  both  these 
efforts ;  the  main  social  meaning  was  the  per- 
manent establishment  of  a  bond  of  sympathy 
between  the  Church  in  this  wide  and  deeper 
meaning,  and  the  more  intelligent  and  thought- 
ful working-men,  who  felt  that  here  was  a 
Christianity  that  they  could  accept  and  which 
tried  at  least  to  understand  and  voice  their 
wants  and  make  articulate  their  complaints. 
The  senseless  panic  of  London  over  the  Chart- 
ist movement  wras  not  shared  by  these  earnest 
seekers  after  the  social  solution  of  problems 
that  must  be  faced.  They  were  brave  men 
who  dared  at  the  time  of  great  excitement  in 
1838-1848  to  claim  for  Chartism,  and  oppressed 
and  unrepresented  working-men,  a  fair  hearing. 
Against  Maurice,  Ludlow,  and  Kingsley  were 
arrayed  not  only  all  the  conservative  forces  in 
Church  and  state,  but  the  liberal  political 
economy  of  the  day  was  almost  as  violently 
outraged  by  their  teaching  as  was  conservatism. 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      185 

The  extreme  Manchester  individualism  was  the 
dominant  note  of  the  time.  The  socialism  of 
Owen  was  for  them  the  most  paltry  and  imprac- 
tical sentimentalism.  Cobden  and  Bright  saw 
quite  clearly  the  real  evil  of  the  corn  laws,  and 
the  natural  tendency  of  any  reformer  is  to 
greatly  over-estimate  the  value  of  the  one  re- 
form seen  to  be  necessary.  Foolishly  enough, 
the  Chartists  did  not  see  the  evil  of  protection 
to  their  own  interests,  and  O'Connell  violently 
opposed  the  league.  The  political  economy 
views  of  Bentham  and  James  Mill  were  the 
prevalent  basis  of  thought  for  the  young  and 
intelligent  radicalism  that  looked  with  scorn  on 
the  "Coleridgians,"  as  Maurice  and  Stirling  are 
called  in  Mill's  Autobiography.  This  thought 
was  in  its  sectarian  stage,  as  John  Stuart  Mill 
himself  says.  Later  on  in  life  he  also  realized 
some  of  the  things  for  which  now  the  school  of 
Maurice,  Ludlow  and  others  were  contending. 
At  that  time  Coleridge  was  identified  in  many 
minds  with  the  most  feared  forms  of  infidelity, 
and  Owen  stood  for  the  religion  of  "  Reason," 
which  to  the  average  Englishman  was  the  same 
as  the  guillotine,  the  revolution  of  blood,  and 
the  fury  of  mob  law.  For  the  religious  philos- 
ophy of  Coleridge  and  the  practical  philan- 
thropy and  social  reforms  of  Owen,  Maurice 
now  stood  up  as  defender,  and  that  in  the  name 


186     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

of  orthodox  Christianity.  The  fury  and  sur- 
prise of  all  parties  may  be  imagined. 

England  was  gathering  her  forces  for  a 
struggle  with  the  discontented.  The  disturb- 
ances in  the  north  were  easily  put  down,  and 
then  came  the  fiasco  in  London. 

The  mob  scattered,  but  there  was  left  a  bit- 
terness in  the  hearts  of  thousands  such  as  only 
injustice,  disappointment,  and  helpless  rage  can 
engender.  The  population  of  England  was  in  a 
fair  way  to  drift  as  helplessly  away  from  organ- 
ized religion  as  has  the  whole  of  the  Social 
Democracy  of  Germany,  and  with  the  same 
destructive,  senseless  hate  of  all  even  distantly 
connected  with  the  Church.  Then  it  was  that 
these  few  men  saved  society  from  this  division. 
The  kindly,  gentle  sympathy  of  men  like  Mau- 
rice, Kingsley,  Ludlow,  Thomas  Hughes ;  their 
willingness  to  bear  the  storm  of  opprobrium 
that  greeted  their  self-chosen  title  of  Christian 
Socialists;  their  splendid  appeals  to  the  man' 
hood,  not  of  a  class,  but  of  all  England,  called 
enough  away  from  bald  and  materialistic  secu- 
larism to  stem  the  tide,  and  if  not  to  wholly 
correct  the  mistakes  of  ecclesiasticism,  yet  at 
least  to  claim  a  share  in  the  reform  movement 
for  earnest,  Christ-like  men. 

Maurice  embodied,  in  his  Kingdom  of  Christ, 
his  faith  in  the  Church  as  under  two  aspects — 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      187 

one  as  a  great  social  organization,  the  other  as 
a  great  educational  organization.  He  made 
what  would  to  the  Nonconformist  world  seem 
extravagant  claims  for  the  Church  as  controlling 
education,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  longed  to 
admit  all  Dissenters  to  the  Church,  not  on  the 
basis  of  a  set  of  opinions,  but  of  the  organizing 
life  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  not  a 
"  liberal."  He  wrote  himself  in  1871 :  "  What 
sympathy  then  could  I  have  with  the  Liberal 
party  (in  1830),  which  was  emphatically  anti- 
theological."  To  him  personally  Cobden  and 
the  anti-corn  law  league  were  being  used  of 
God,  but  he  had  no  faith  in  a  national  life  that 
was  not  based  on  faith  in  a  divine  order,  and 
any  movement  that  appealed  only  to  present 
expediency  was  to  him  wanting  in  the  first 
guarantee  for  permanent  usefulness.  It  is  hard 
now  to  understand  the  storm  of  indignation  that 
greeted  these  men.  They  sacrificed  all  chances 
of  preferment  in  the  Church.  But  happily 
Maurice  and  Kingsley  do  not  need  titles  to 
their  names  to  keep  them  afloat. 

The  work  of  winning  the  working-men  began 
in  the  little  night-school  in  Little  Ormond  Yard, 
where  the  Rev.  Mr.  Short  and  Maurice  began 
first  with  grown  men  and  then  gradually  with 
boys,  and  all  that  would  come.  Some  of  the 
choicest  minds  of  England  have  kept  up  since 


188     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

the  work  thus  simply  begun,  and  carried  it  on 
amidst  a  storm  of  abuse.  The  motives  are  well 
set  forth  by  Maurice  himself,  in  writing  of  a 
Chartist  tailor  who  became  one  of  his  active 
workers  :  "  The  man  is  full  of  honest  doubts. 
He  has  been  driven  into  infidelity  from  feeling 
that  there  were  no  Christians  to  meet  the  wants 
of  his  mind."  *  Just  as  to-day,  on  the  conti- 
nent, all  the  unquestioned  fidelity  and  honest 
benevolence  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
avails  little  to  keep  her  hold  on  the  more  intel- 
ligent and  half -educated  masses,  because  she 
refuses  to  them  what  she  does  not  deny  to  her 
intellectual  aristocracy — full  freedom  to  investi- 
gate and  encouragement  to  do  so.  So  also  the 
Evangelical  party  in  England  feared  the  results 
of  such  encouragement  to  question,  treated  all 
questioning  as  wicked  doubt,  and  drove  from 
her  the  intelligence  and  manhood  of  the  awak- 
ened masses. 

Walter  Cooper  and  Gerald  Massey  paved  the 
way  for  free  intercourse  between  these  Chris- 
tian reformers  and  the  ex-Chartist  workers  at 
Cranbourn  Tavern,  and  there  was  organized  the 
first  "  Working-men's  Association."  The  efforts 
of  these  men  were  directed,  as  Maurice  said, 
toward  "  Christianizing  socialism  and  not  Chris- 
tian-Socializing the  universe."  t  They  met  as 
*  Life  of  Maurice,  Vol  I. ,  p.  519.  f  Ibid. ,  Vol.  II. ,  p.  41. 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      189 

seekers  after  the  solution  of  existing  difficulties. 
No  one,  not  the  most  hardened  Conservative 
Tory,  denied  that  there  were  hardships  and 
inequalities  in  the  existing  social  arrangements. 
Beligion,  it  seemed  to  these  men,  presupposed 
a  divine  order,  incompatible  with  the  human 
disorder.  Of  course,  they  had  their  several 
ways  of  remedy,  but  the  main  thing  in  the 
minds  of  the  religious  elements  was  the  asser- 
tion of  this  faith  in  a  divine  order  as  the  miracle 
mountain-lifting  force.  For  them  the  conflict 
was  really  a  double  one,  with  the  un-Christian 
socialists  and  the  un-social  Christians.  Work- 
ing-men's colleges  were  established  at  Oxford, 
Cambridge,  Manchester,  Salford,  Ancoats,  Shef- 
field, Halifax,  Wolverhampton,  Glasgow,  Bir- 
kenhead  and  Ayr."*  The  Democratic  revolt 
against  all  ecclesiasticism  was  separated  from 
revolt  against  Christianity.  The  evils  of  classes 
spripging  up  ignorant  of  each  others'  needs, 
difficulties,  and  common  aspirations,  were  to 
some  extent  averted.  Socialistic  England's 
legislation  has  steadily  been  from  that  date 
onward,  but  the  socialistic  party  has  nowhere 
been  weaker.  Kingsley,  and  still  more  Maurice, 
recognized  the  fact  that  any  triumph  of  a  par- 
ty, socialistic  or  otherwise,  must  of  necessity 
be  temporary  and  inadequate.  The  nation  must 
*  Life  of  Maurice,  Vol.  II.,  p.  379. 


190     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

move  as  a  nation,  and  work  out  its  own  salva- 
tion with  fear  and  trembling  as  a  nation. 

Archdeacon  Hare  wrote  of  Maurice  in  1853  : 
"  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  other  living 
man  who  has  done  anything  at  all  approaching 
to  what  Maurice  has  effected,  in  reconciling  the 
reason  and  the  conscience  of  thoughtful  men 
of  our  age  to  the  faith  of  the  Church."  *  And 
when  at  last  ecclesiastical  zeal  deprived  him  of 
his  professorship,  nearly  a  thousand  working- 
men,  of  ninety-five  different  occupations,  sent 
him  a  spontaneous  address  of  passionate  loyalty. 

Nor  can  we  overlook  the  effects  of  this 
thought  on  the  literature  of  the  day.  The 
secular  spirit  had  found  expression,  the  restless 
inquiry  of  the  day  had  voiced  itself  in  the 
bitterness  of  Byron  and  Shelley.  Now  another 
and  a  higher  note  was  to  be  sounded,  and  in 
Tennyson  all  the  aspirations  of  a  religious  so- 
cial feeling  found  their  voice.  In  Memoriam 
embodies  the  teachings  of  Maurice,  and  the 
music  of  Tennyson  has  become  English  music 
as  no  other  poet's  singing  has  done  since 
Chaucer.  Byron  may  be  still  read  and  admired 
in  Europe,  but  nowhere  will  Tennyson  be  read 
as  he  is  with  us.  As  the  German  household 
feels  the  pagan  note  in  Goethe,  and,  although 
proud  of  his  intellectual  gianthood,  loves  Schil- 
*  Life  of  Maurice,  Vol.  II..  p.  184. 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      191 

ler  more ;  so  the  English  literary  world  may 
place  Byron  never  so  high,  yet  by  Wordsworth 
and  Tennyson  is  English  society  influenced, 
and  their  music  it  loves. 

This  broad  church  movement,  as  it  was  loose- 
ly '  called,  was  not  the  creation  of  any  man. 
Just  as  Methodism  sprang  up  and  flourished 
quite  independently  of  its  greatest  leaders,  so 
this  social-religious  movement  was  born  not  of 
flesh  nor  of  blood  but  by  the  will  of  God.  In- 
deod,  independently  of  Maurice,  Robertson  of 
Brighton  fought  his  way  to  a  wider  and  noble 
conception  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  with  its 
duties  and  glorious  privileges.  And  working- 
men  heard  him  gladly.  On  his  tomb  is  a  touch- 
ing inscription  placed, there  by  "the  working- 
men  of  Brighton."  They  filled  the  church  at 
his  funeral,  and  gave  him  an  attentive  hearing 
whenever  he  poured  out,  as  he  freely  did,  the 
best  that  his  trained  sympathetic  mind  had  to 
give. 

The  movement  was  in  no  way  hindered  by 
some  who  did  not  share  its  leading  thought. 
Carlyle  never  turned  to  the  secular  liberalism  of 
his  day,  nor  sought  refuge  from  his  doubts  and 
darkness  in  a  surrender  to  democratic  ma- 
chinery. In  much  of  Christianity  he  rightly 
saw  sham  and  unreason ;  he  despised  the  com- 
fortable negligence  of  the  pressing  issues  that 


192     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

marked  large  sections  of  the  churches.  Upon 
the  insincerity  of  the  day  he  poured  out  his  in- 
dignation, sometimes  a  little  too  much  in  the 
style  of  modern  grand  opera,  with  waTes  of 
sound  and  the  clashing  of  cymbals,  not  meaning 
much  to  untrained  ears.  But  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  he  was  saved  from  more  direct  and  destruc- 
tive antagonism  by  the  moral  respect  inspired 
by  the  men  who  were,  as  usual,  being  denounced 
as  the  introducers  of  strange  gods  and  the  wan- 
ton destroyers  of  old  treasures. 

The  foundation  of  the  faith  that  marked  this 
phase  of  the  religious  awakening  was  a  pro- 
found confidence  that  God  was  made  evident  in 
a  divine  order,  and  that  all  society  and  all  life 
was  a  witness  to  this  order ;  that  even  the  dis- 
orders of  society,  the  sins  and  shortcomings  of 
men  revealed  still  more  plainly  that  all  real  life 
was  dependent  upon  this  order ;  and  that  these 
sins  bore  witness  to  the  fact.  The  social  value 
was  not  therefore  the  exhibition  of  a  kindly  and 
sympathetic  spirit  toward  the  weaker  and  hum- 
bler classes.  Nor  was  the  spirit  of  the  move- 
ment one  of  content  with  existing  conditions. 
Indeed,  Maurice  urged  Kingsley  to  "write  a 
working  country  parson's  letter  about  the  right 
and  wrong  use  of  the  Bible.  I  mean  protesting 
against  the  notion  of  turning  it  into  a  book  to 
keep  the  poor  in  order."  This  faith  in  God  was 


THE  BROAD   CHURCH  MOVEMENT      193 

reflected  in  faith  in  man's  possible  apprehen- 
sion of  God.  It  led  to  confidence  in  enlight- 
ened reason,  and  trusted  even  the  poorest  and 
most  ignorant  with  the  deep  things  of  God. 
The  faith  of  the  masses  of  men  had  been  ter- 
ribly shaken  by  the  apparent  refusal  of  the 
Church  to  meet  the  issues  raised  by  such 
books  as  Paine's  Age  of  Reason,  and  the  more 
intelligent  of  the  Chartists  were  familiar  with 
the  arguments  of  the  French  encyclopaedists 
as  given  them  in  the  Chartist  literature  that 
sprang  up  all  over  the  North  of  England  after 
the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill.  Evangelical 
orthodoxy  demanded  unquestioned  obedience  to 
a  book,  whose  verbal  inspiration  was  asserted  in 
more  or  less  distinct  terms,  while  the  Church 
either  ignored  the  issue  or  turned  to  "  author- 
ity," as  we  shall  see  in  the  next  lecture.  The 
extreme  Protestantism  of  the  working-classes 
was  ready  to  accept  neither  of  these  proposi- 
tions, nor  to  submit  to  any  ignoring  of  the  argu- 
ments ;  and  hundreds  turned  away  from  all  re- 
ligion, and  sought  in  social  agitation  an  outlet 
for  their  social  energies.  Many,  however,  were 
saved  by  the  bold  and  fearless  linking  of  faith 
in  a  divine  order,  to  which  faith  the  social  ac- 
tivity of  the  ex-Chartists  and  reformers  bore 
witness,  with  the  content  of  Christianity  as  the 

highest  witness  to  that  divine,  imperishable  re- 
13 


194:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

ality.  And  the  fearless  facing  of  critical  and 
scientific  questions  gave  hundreds  of  young  men 
new  courage  to  take  up  religion  again  as  having 
meaning  and  power  for  the  very  ends  they  held 
most  dear. 

The  fearful  and  destructive  antagonism  be- 
tween the  ideals  of  Christianity  and  progressive 
thought  that  became  the  normal  condition  on 
the  continent  of  Europe  before  and  after  the 
fitful  storm  of  1848,  was  largely  avoided  in  Eng- 
land, and  with  it  the  disastrous  separations  of 
classes  of  men  in  their  political  and  social  ideals. 
Liberalism  was  no  longer  synonymous  with  anti- 
Christian  speculation,  and  in  the  minds  of  many, 
and  some  of  them  the  choicest  in  England,  the 
fundamental  conception  of  Christianity  became 
identical  with  the  reign  and  exhibition  of  that 
social  love  and  order  which  gave  the  reform 
movement  its  point  and  power. 

Nor  was  it  a  weakness  of  the  broad  church 
movement — so-called — that  in  its  finest  spirits 
modern  mechanical  liberalism  was  constantly 
disavowed.  The  Manchester  school  was  doing 
its  purely  Protestant  work,  critical  and  destruc- 
tive of  past  idols  and  vain  worship.  There  was 
serious  danger  that  hollow  political  rationalism 
should  seriously  blight  the  growth  of  social  en- 
thusiasm roused  by  the  anti-corn  law  agitation. 
Then  it  was  that  the  prophecy  of  Carlyle  and 


THE  BROAD  CIIUROH  MOVEMENT     195 

Buskin  in  no  small  measure  contributed  to 
rouse  again  the  spiritual  perceptions  of  men  to 
new  activity.  These  men  were  essentially  re- 
ligious teachers,  but  the  basis  of  their  teaching 
was  not  dogmatic  but  social.  They  failed,  even 
in  their  better  moments,  to  do  justice  to  large 
elements  in  the  dogmatic  progress  of  Christi- 
anity. But  they  did  call  men  back  to  great  fun- 
damental but  much  neglected  views  of  human 
life. 

It  was  at  Morris's  working-man's  college  that 
Kuskin  learned  some  of  the  lessons  to  which  he 
reverted  in  his  later  life  as  he  "  harked  back " 
(in  his  own  words)  to  the  religious  memories  of 
the  past.  And  the  long  and  noble  list  of  men 
whose  life  was  touched  on  its  deepest  side,  and 
who  passed  over  those  early  bridges  of  artifi- 
cial gulfs  to  understand  better  and  more  fully 
the  aspirations  of  their  fellow-men,  is  glorious 
prophecy  for  the  ultimate  triumph  of  a  religious 
and  spiritual  democracy  in  England.  The  sub- 
ordinate place  that  Buskin  gave  to  his  art 
criticism  was  one  result  of  that  early  contact 
with  human  life.  "  I  begin  to  feel,"  he  writes 
to  Miss  Mitford,  "  that  all  the  work  I  have  been 
doing,  and  all  the  loves  I  have  been  cherishing, 
are  ineffective  and  frivolous — that  these  are  not 
the  times  for  watching  clouds,  or  dreaming  over 
quiet  waters  ;  that  more  serious  work  is  to  be 


196     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

done ;  and  that  the  time  for  endurance  has 
come,  rather  than  for  meditation ;  and  for  hope 
rather  than  for  happiness."  * 

This  phase  of  the  religious  movement 
•widened  out  into  so  many  differing  channels, 
found  expressions  so  various,  that  many  will 
fail  to  realize  the  essentially  religious  character 
of  these  manifestations.  Scholastic  Protestant- 
ism has  so  over-emphasized  metaphysics  as  a 
factor  in  a  religious  philosophy  that  it  has  been 
willing  to  unite  men  far  apart  in  real  sympa- 
thies upon  a  basis  of  superficial  agreement 
here.  For  co-operation  some  agreement  in 
sympathy  is  wholly  needful.  The  broad  school 
realized  more  or  less  distinctly,  however,  that 
this  sympathy  might  have  another  basis  besides 
metaphysical  theological  speculation.  For  men 
of  the  mental  type  of  Buskin  and  Morris  it  is 
perfectly  useless  to  propose  any  metaphysical 
theological  basis  as  a  common  ground,  for 
neither  of  them  could  ever  be  the  least  inter- 
ested in  either  metaphysical  or  philosophical 
problems.  This  is  no  more  a  reproach  to  them 
than  if  they  were  to  regard  Calvin  as  irrelig- 
ious, because  living  in  the  midst  of  the  glories 
of  the  Savoy  Alps,  he  never  once,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  alluded  to  the  beauty  which  surrounded 
him  unnoticed. 

*  Collingwood's  Life  of  Ruskin,  Vol.  I.,  p.  157. 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      197 

Morris's  art  work  and  Toynbee  Hall  are, 
however,  equally  the  product  of  the  religious 
movement  with  the  discussions  of  predestina- 
tion and  free  will  to  which  it  also  gave  rise.  It 
belonged  to  the  essence  of  the  broad  church 
movement  that  it  sought,  more  or  less  intelli- 
gently and  more  or  less  successfully,  to  bind 
men  together  for  religious  life  and  social  ser- 
vice on  another  platform  than  that  of  intellectual 
agreement.  In  point  of  fact  as  human  activity 
is  more  and  more  widely  differentiated  in  its 
evolution,  agreements  of  an  intellectual  kind  will 
insure  less  and  less  that  union  in  sympathy  and 
feeling  most  needed  for  effective  co-operation. 
The  religious  significance  of  the  broad  church 
movement  was  therefore  of  necessity  not  to  be 
expressed  in  theological  formulae  ;  neither  could 
anyone  truly  test  it  by  theological  formulae. 
Dr.  Candlish  never  really  met  Maurice  at  all  in 
their  discussion  of  the  atonement.  They  spoke 
in  different  tongues  about  different  things. 

The  social  significance  of  the  movement 
scarcely  needs  pointing  out.  Toynbee  Hall  and 
the  decorations  of  every  English  house  of  a 
certain  class  built  since  1880,  the  settlement 
work  of  London,  the  socialism  of  the  London 
county  council,  the  summer  schools  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  are  only  a  few  of  the  tokens 
met  on  every  hand.  The  message  of  a  line  of 


198     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

prophets  from  Maurice  to  Buskin  cannot  be 
formulated  into  a  philosophic  creed,  and  would 
lose  its  power  were  that  attempted,  but  Buskin 
still  speaks  to  thousands  and  thousands  in  a 
voice  they  can  understand,  of  truth  and  right- 
eousness and  divine  order.  The  note  of  stern- 
ness is  not  lacking.  The  old  Puritan  spirit  is 
dominant  in  Carlyle.  It  is  no  accident  that  he 
it  was  who  gave  Cromwell  back  to  England  as  a 
Protestant  hero.  Sin  in  its  abstractor  forms 
may  have  not  received  due  emphasis.  Against 
Sin  in  its  concrete  visible  modes  is  thundered  at 
with  Old  Testament  vigor.  That  which  lay 
deepest  in  the  heart  of  Euskin  was,  "  the  weight 
of  evil  against  which  we  have  to  contend,"  and 
"  the  blasphemies  of  the  earth  "  waxing  "  louder 
and  its  miseries  heaped  heavier  every  day." 
Nor  would  it  be  difficult  to  show  that  the  dream 
of  a  social  theocracy,  that  with  all  the  inevita- 
ble limits  of  the  dreams,  has  stirred  men's  hearts 
in  England  from  the  days  of  More,  is  the  same 
religious-social  feeling  that  bound  together  not 
alone  the  past  with  the  present,  but  the  relig- 
ious and  social  yearnings  of  spirits  apparently 
very  far  apart. 

The  composite  social  life  is  more  varied, 
deeper,  and  more  many-sided  than  any  individ- 
ual can  be.  As  Browning  and  Dante  Bossetti, 
toiled  to  make  the  mediaeval  world  and  the  Be- 


THE  BROAD   CHURCH  MOVEMENT      199 

naissance  plain  in  the  world  of  poetical  expres- 
sion, they  also  mingled  the  deep  insight  into 
the  life  of  the  people,  the  wonderful  depth  of 
common  human  life  as  the  Puritan  of  Puritan- 
ism's best  period  felt  and  saw  it.  The  socialism 
of  William  Morris  is  not  the  bald,  unspiritual, 
materialistic,  economic  theory  from  which  very 
naturally  many  have  shrunk ;  it  is  fierce  yearn- 
ing after  the  entire  redeemable  man,  the  rescue 
of  manhood  from  the  clutch  of  tyrannies  mis- 
called economic  laws. 

'  *  Dreamer  of  dreams,  born  out  of  my  due  time, 
Why  should  I  strive  to  set  the  crooked  straight  ?  "  * 

Joy  was  man's  rightful  portion  and  love  the 
only  way  to  joy. 

Love  is  enough  :  ho  ye  who  seek  saving, 

Go  no  further ;  come  hither ;  there  hath  been  who 

have  found  it. 

And  these  know  the  House  of  Fulfilment  of  craving ; 
These  know  the  cup  with  the  roses  around  it  ; 
These  know  the  World's  wound  and  the  balm  that 

hath  bound  it ; 
Cry  out,  the  World  heedeth  not,   "Love  leads  us 

home!"f 

The  discontent  of  England  was  not  the  bane- 
ful thing  it  might  have  been,  arraying  class 
against  class,  men  eating  their  hearts  out  in 
the  ignoble,  envious  struggle,  because  of  the 

*  Earthly  Paradise,  Interlude.          f  Love  is  Enough  ! 


200     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

social  direction  given  by  the  religious  impulse 
in  the  opening  years  of  the  century.  Hard 
materialistic  Liberalism,  the  narrow  creed  of 
the  worship  of  the  Goddess  of  Getting  On  is, 
God  knows,  all  too  prevalent  still;  but  it  no 
longer  could  pose  as  the  moral  leader  of  the 
world,  nor  could  it  vaunt  itself  in  all  its  naked- 
ness and  be  not  ashamed  as  it  does  elsewhere, 
and  did  in  England  before  the  fierce  onslaughts 
of  Maurice,  Kingsley,  Carlyle,  Buskin,  and 
William  Morris.  The  change  in  the  decoration 
of  English  homes,  and  the  new  types  of  phil- 
anthropic efforts  introduced  may  be  matters  of 
passing  fashion ;  but  new  currents  were  set  in 
motion  that  are  not  matters  of  passing  fashion, 
but  flow  forth  from  the  throne  of  the  living 
God.  A  new  sense  of  brotherhood  and  social 
responsibility  was  awakened,  a  new  longing  for 
directness,  sincerity,  and  Christian  manhood  was 
born,  and  in  hundreds  of  channels  flow  still  the 
quiet  waters  of  this  phase  of  the  religious 
awakening  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Puritanism  has  in  its  nature  nothing  that 
should  check  the  artistic  and  aesthetic  life.  It 
was  its  stern  struggle  that  gave  its  face  the 
severe  hard  lines  that  mask  its  nobler  being. 
Its  intensely  Protestant  character  was  stamped 
upon  it  in  its  long  weary  fight  with  a  dissolute 
court  and  a  disordered  kingdom.  The  sense  of 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      201 

God  as  the  father  of  the  nation,  the  high  long- 
ing to  make  the  national  life  a  temple  for  his 
worship,  the  intense  feeling  of  dependence  upon 
the  God  of  Battles,  and  the  splendid  manhood 
engendered  by  vows  of  loyalty  foremost  and 
immediately  to  God  and  His  will;  these  were 
the  elements  that  made  Puritanism  great  and 
at  times  terrible.  Had  it  gone  forth  to  joy 
and  love ;  had  it  had  its  training  in  the  graces 
and  the  beauties  of  God's  fuller  Eevelation; 
and  then  had  it  survived  uncorrupted  and  still 
undefiled,  we  should  have  had  the  highest  ex- 
hibition of  the  possible  glory  of  the  exalted 
risen  Christ.  Historically  it  went  forth  to  bat- 
tle, to  apparent  defeat,  and  men  wrote  shameful 
and  mocking  inscriptions  over  the  cross  on 
which  it  was  crucified.  It  arose  again  from  the 
dead.  It  spoke  again  of  law  and  sin  and  death 
in  William  Law,  Wesley,  and  Whitefield;  it 
called  again  the  national  church  to  reform  and 
ethical  struggle,  it  awoke  in  the  smiles  and 
tears  of  a  new  poetry,  psalmody,  and  art.  Again 
in  new  words  and  yet  old  phase,  it  haunted  men 
with  longings  for  a  national  theocracy ;  not  a 
stupid  economic  theory,  nor  yet  a  dead  level 
of  dull  mediocrity,  but  to  a  divine  democracy 
under  the  leadership  of  the  best,  the  noblest, 
and  truest  to  which  men's  hearts  might  turn. 
Amid  all  the  racial,  intellectual,  and  artistic 


202     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

"-«! 

differences  that  separate  so  widely  those  who 
may  be  roughly  classed  together  as  one  phase 
of  the  great  religious  awakening,  this  spirit 
alone  is  common  to  all,  this  divine  longing  bends 
all  together  in  a  religious  unity  no  creed  could 
accomplish.  The  sense  of  God's  law,  His 
justice,  His  revelation  in  all  present  life  of  love 
to  the  children  of  men,  and  an  awe-struck  long- 
ing for  a  wider  social  revelation  amid  the  sor- 
rows and  disorders  of  the  world ;  these  were 
the  fruits  of  that  awakened  spirit  manifesting 
itself  in  so  many  different  phases. 

If,  therefore,  we  are  to  criticise  this  phase  of 
the  movement,  it  is  necessary  to  understand 
both  its  ideals  and  its  limitations.  To  many  its 
theology  is  "  gelatinous,"  its  theory  of '  life 
"  vague,"  its  social  thought  either  "  mystic  "  or 
"sentimental."  To  many  it  seemed  but  the 
broad  and  easy  road  to  a  gradual  rejection  of 
all  positive  conviction ;  an  evasion  of  all  clear 
and  definite  answers  to  the  searching  questions 
of  unbelief.  There  can  be  no  question  that 
some  of  these  charges  have  a  basis  of  truth. 
Many  minds  will  never  be,  ought  never  to  be, 
satisfied  with  the  answers  given  by  Maurice  or 
Coleridge  to  the  scholastic  problems.  Scho- 
lasticism is  only  evil  when  it  is  dead  scholasti- 
cism or  when  it  is  substituted  for  revelation  and 
its  conclusions  treated  as  final.  Very  often  the 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      203 

broad  churchman  has  attacked  scholasticism  in 
the  same  illiberal  spirit  in  which  it  would  con- 
demn him.  There  must  be  more  and  not  less 
theology.  There  must  be  more  and  not  less  of 
accurate  and  searching  metaphysical  inquiry. 
Out  of  these,  however,  will  never  come  social 
regeneration.  The  social  meaning  of  the  broad 
church  movement  was  largely  a  protest,  and  a 
needed  protest,  against  the  cherishing  of  past 
and  well-worn  phrases  and  turns  of  thought; 
it  is  also  a  protest  against  any  attempt  to  again 
build  up  Protestantism  on  the  basis  of  any 
metaphysical  philosophy,  no  matter  how  search- 
ing and  no  matter  how  consistent. 

In  the  same  way  and  for  the  same  reason  this 
movement  was  a  protest  against  the  speculative 
political  economy  of  the  day.  The  age  of  ma- 
chinery and  the  advance  of  science  had  per- 
suaded men  that  the  motives  of  human  life 
could  be  classified  and  investigated  as  simply  as 
the  laws  of  mechanics.  No  one  questions  the 
reign  of  law  in  human  life,  but  the  political 
economy  of  the  anti-corn-law  agitation  was  a 
priori,  mechanical  and  utterly  superficial.  It 
omitted  motives  that  on  the  face  of  history  are 
the  most  powerful  factors  in  human  life,  and  its 
philosophy  was  wofully  defective.  The  broad 
church  social  thought  was  not  sufficiently  clear 
or  thoroughly  enough  worked  out  to  command 


204:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

even  the  attention  in  that  day  of  scientific  (so- 
called)  political  economy.  Its  appeal,  however, 
did  what  political  economy  could  not  do,  and 
its  social  success  and  unremitting  activity  have 
given  it  a  place  in  English  life,  even  as  a  theory 
of  social  organization,  that  the  conclusions  of 
John  Stuart  Mill  have  long  lost. 

Its  definite  service  was  the  infusing  into  the 
social  intuitions  of  Owen  the  inspiration  of  the 
religious  altruism  that  Owen  lived  upon  with- 
out knowing  upon  what  meat  he  really  fed.  No 
doubt  co-operation  as  experimented  upon  is 
temporary;  but  association  is  permanent,  and 
the  power  and  new  problems  of  association 
Owen  was  the  first  to  recognize.  Many  wonder 
why  socialism  as  a  party  has  no  hold  upon  Eng- 
lish life,  and  yet  the  explanation  is  to  be  sought 
in  the  spirit  that  propagated  socialism  in  the 
first  instance,  and  gave  to  it  a  deep  distrust  of 
either  sharply  cut  class  lines,  or  of  intensely 
dogmatic  positions.  The  gradual  reformation 
of  methods  and  manners  inspired  by  the  broad 
church  religious  movement  has  also  filled  men 
with  hope  in  the  final  outcome  of  a  gradual 
evolutionary  process  assisted  by  growing  intel- 
ligence and  conscience. 

One  great  weakness  as  a  popular  religious 
force  was,  of  necessity,  the  lack  of  clear-cut 
definitions  and  party  catch- words.  Evangelical- 


THE  BROAD  CHURCH  MOVEMENT      205 

ism  was  strong  in  presenting  a  sharply  defined 
and  closely  organized  system  of  belief  that 
fairly  covered  all  life.  Once  its  main  proposi- 
tions and  chief  premises  were  granted  it  easily 
became  a  code  readily  defended  and  not  diffi- 
cult to  master.  Evangelicalism  was  positive, 
dogmatic,  clear-cut,  and  within  certain  limits 
self-consistent.  As  it  began  to  weaken  and  lose 
its  power  those  who  had  grown  up  under  its 
teaching  found  the  doubts  and  acknowledged 
limitations  of  the  broad  movement  very  trying. 
For  such  minds  it  seemed  as  if  all  had  gone 
when  clear,  sharp,  positive  answers  were  no 
longer  furnished  by  the  "  system  of  truth."  For 
many  salvation  was  a  "  scheme ; "  a  series  of 
propositions.  The  religious  teaching  that  could 
not  easily  be  compassed  by  a  series  of  proposi- 
tions was  defective  and  dangerous.  Honest 
men  and  women  felt,  they  said,  that  their  souls 
were  not  fed,  because  they  were  accustomed  to 
find  their  food  given  in  particular  forms,  and 
missing  the  form  starved. 

Moreover  it  is  true  that  co-operation  is  only 
possible  on  a  basis  of  sympathy  and  fellowship. 
The  broad  church  movement  assumed  a  wider 
sympathy  and  a  broader  fellowship  than  yet 
exists  among  men.  It  insisted  itself  on  a  plat- 
form whose  negative  attitude  excluded  many 
with,  they  thought,  clearer  purpose  and  more 


206     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

definite  convictions.  It  failed  to  realize  impor- 
tant omissions  in  its  teaching  and  aspirations. 
It  gave  excuse  to  many  for  a  refusal  to  consider 
at  all  matters  that  must  be  faced  and  struggled 
with  to  an  issue. 

One  service  it  is  impossible  to  omit  that  was 
immediately  social  as  well  as  religious ;  it  gave 
comprehension  a  reasonable  and  intelligent 
basis.  To  "tolerate"  implies  an  arrogant 
assumption  of  superiority.  The  spirit  of  com- 
prehension is  much  wider  and  better  than  the 
spirit  of  toleration.  Toleration  is  usually  a 
matter  of  necessity.  The  spirit  of  comprehen- 
sion was  first  rationally  defended  and  cogently 
maintained  by  the  broad  churchmen,  not  as  a 
matter  of  necessity,  political,  social,  or  religious, 
but  of  privilege  and  advantage.  The  fundament- 
al confession  upon  which  any  democracy  rests 
is  that  no  one  individual  or  party  is  as  wise  as 
the  whole  people.  To  excise  any  elements  is  to 
weaken  the  power  of  the  whole  to  come  to  just 
conclusions.  To  exclude  honest  contributions 
to  the  solution  of  life's  pressing  questions  is  to 
set  up  an  authority  confessedly  less  wise  than 
the  whole,  by  making  a  party  sit  in  judgment. 

The  Broad  Church  movement  was  of  all  phases 
the  most  intensely  Protestant  in  character,  if  the 
early  reformers  be  considered  normal ;  only  they 
attempted  to  carry  out  more  fully  the  principles 


TEE  BROAD  GHUROH  MOVEMENT   207 

which  circumstances  made  well-nigh  impossible 
of  carrying  out  for  the  early  leaders. 

The  strength  of  the  movement  was  strong 
faith  in  God  as  deliverer  and  ruler,  and  supreme 
confidence  that  men  had  only  to  submit  their 
plans  and  ways  to  the  divine  guidance,  and  out 
of  the  darkness  of  night  would  come  the  day- 
spring  from  on  high  to  visit  and  to  cheer,  and 
that  the  Son  of  God  was  now  redeeming  a  king- 
dom unto  Himself. 


LECTUKE  VII. 

THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION 

THE  movement  which  has  been  denominated 
"  the  Broad  Church  "  movement  was  not  linked 
together  by  any  intellectual  principle  that  was 
absolutely  common  to  all.  Maurice  was  both 
conservative  in  temper  and  profoundly  under 
the  power  of  certain  traditions.  Carlyle  felt 
that  he  and  Buskin  stood  at  one  time  alone  in 
England  for  God  and  the  Queen.  The  basis 
was  rather  a  certain  catholicity  of  taste  and  a 
social  sympathy  on  which  the  different  elements 
in  this  Broad  movement  met. 

But  the  same  forces  that  urged  these  on  in 
revolt  against  the  deadness  of  both  the  spiritual 
and  the  intellectual  life  of  England  were  operat- 
ing even  earlier  on  another  set  of  minds  destined 
to  play  perhaps  a  more  striking  part  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  social  development  of  England's 
democracy.  Widely  apart  as  are  the  ethical 
standards  and  ideals  of  the  great  body  of  Eng- 
land's middle  class  from  those  of  the  ruling 
aristocracy,  these  differences  have  yet  been 
largely  surmounted  by  England's  practical  spirit 
208 


THE  HIGH  CIIUnCH  REACTION        209 

of  compromise,  and  in  consequence  of  the  deep- 
seated  distrust,  natural  to  all  classes,  of  abstract 
theories  or  a  thorough-going  logic. 

The  puritan  type  and  the  cavalier  have  faced 
each  other  under  different  names  almost  since 
the  Norman  Conquest.  From  time  to  time  the 
strain  has  become  too  great  and  the  resort  has 
been  to  arms.  For  the  most  part,  however,  the 
great  intermixture  of  blood,  and  political  in- 
stinct have  saved  England  from  such  disaster. 
The  ideals  have,  however,  constantly  survived, 
and  to-day  the  "  nonconf orming  conscience  "  is 
a  distinct  force  to  be  reckoned  with  in  English 
politics.  Nor  is  it  only  in  nonconformity  that 
one  of  these  ideals  is  to  be  met  with.  The 
Established  Church  has  never  been  homo- 
geneous. Historically  it  has  ever  sheltered 
vastly  different  conceptions  of  both  the  Church 
and  the  state.  Indeed,  it  would  not  be  too 
much  to  say  that  different  conceptions  of  the 
divine  life  and  heart  have  animated  its  coun- 
sels and  moulded  its  history.  The  Evangeli- 
calism of  Rornaine  and  Simon  has  an  historical 
claim  to  consideration,  but  so  also  has  the  High 
Churchmanship  of  Pusey  and  Keble.  William 
Law  and  Laud  represent  types  of  the  life  culti- 
vated within  the  Establishment  from  the  begin- 
ning, when  it  ceased  to  be  Eoman,  and  yet  re- 
mained Catholic  according  to  its  own  claim. 
14 


210     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

The  Establishment  is  not  the  result  of  one 
compromise,  it  is  the  outgrowth  of  years  of  com- 
promise. These  various  struggles  do  not  al- 
ways exhibit  themselves  in  the  standards,  but 
the  two  ideals  are  distinctly  embodied.  The 
articles  are  of  the  reformed  type,  and  embody 
the  Protestant  element  in  the  Church.  The 
prayer-book,  and  particularly  the  rubrics,  rep- 
resent as  strongly  the  Catholic  element,  which 
finds  still  further  development  in  the  homilies. 

In  time  of  indifference  no  one  gave  much 
heed  to  these  contradictions  within  the  Church. 
When  men,  however,  were  under  strain,  then 
extreme  views  came  to  the  front,  and  struggle 
has  ensued. 

The  Established  Church  has  thus  lost,  on  the 
one  hand,  many  whose  views  of  her  prerogatives 
led  them  to  leave  what  they  thought  defiled 
altars,  rather  than  continue  fellowship  with  the 
unsatisfactory  views  held  by  moderate  and  low 
churchmen  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  many  have 
gone  out  from  her  in  protest  against  even  the 
claims  she  did  set  up. 

The  revived  religious  life  awakened  within 
her  and  called  Methodism  and  Evangelicalism, 
saved  the  Church  from  attack  by  those  who  out- 
side her  communion  sympathized  with  the 
Evangelical  attitude.  But  after  the  panic  pro- 
duced by  the  French  Eevolution  had  subsided, 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        211 

liberalism  began  again  to  lift  up  its  head,  and 
to  invade  all  spheres  of  life.  Again  the  Church 
had  to  submit  her  claims  to  the  most  searching 
scrutiny.  Eadical  and  negative  opinions  began 
to  be  again  widely  expressed.  Nor  were  the 
temper  and  arguments  of  men  like  Arnold  and 
Whately  calculated  to  stem  the  rising  tide  of 
liberal  criticism,  nor  stay  very  effectively  the 
hand  of  ruthless  interference.  They  saw  indeed 
the  danger.  Dr.  Arnold  wrote  in  June,  1832,  to 
the  Eev.  J.  E.  Tyler :  "  It  is  worth  while  to  look 
at  Owen's  paper  The  Crisis,  or  at  The  Midland 
Representative,  the  great  paper  of  the  Birming- 
ham operatives.  The  most  abstract  points  are 
discussed  in  them,  and  the  very  foundations  of 
all  things  are  daily  being  probed,  as  much  as  by 
the  sophists,  whom  it  was  the  labor  of  Socrates' 
life  to  combat.  .  .  .  The  Church  as  it  now 
stands,  no  human  power  can  save  ;  my  fear  is, 
that  if  we  do  not  mind,  we  shall  come  to  the 
American  fashion,  and  have  no  provision  made 
for  teaching  Christianity  at  all."  *  And  again 
to  Archbishop  Whately  in  1833  he  writes : 
"Further,  Lord  Henley's  notion  about  convoca- 
tion, and  bishops  not  sitting  in  Parliament,  and 
laymen  not  meddling  with  church  doctrine, 
seemed  to  me  so  dangerous  a  compound  of  the 
worst  errors  of  Popery  and  Evangelicalism  com- 
*  Life  of  Arnold,  Vol.  I.,  p.  278,  Hth  edition. 


212     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

bined,  and  one  so  suited  to  the  interests  of  the 
devil  and  his  numerous  party,  that  I  was  very 
desirous  of  protesting  against  it.*  To  Bishop  Co- 
pies ton  Whately  also  writes :  "  The  Church  has 
been  for  one  hundred  years  without  any  govern- 
ment, and  in  such  stormy  seasons  it  will  not  go 
on  much  longer  without  a  rudder."  f  Yet  they 
were  not  the  men  to  reinstate  the  Church  among 
the  great  masses  of  the  unthinking  clergy. 

Nor  could  the  men  of  the  Maurice  type  render 
effective  service  along  the  ecclesiastical  line. 
They  shared  the  critical  feeling  of  the  day. 
They  desired  rather  to  conform  the  Church  to 
broad  national  wants,  than  to  reassert  for  the 
Church  any  formerly  held  authority.  All  these 
men  represented  the  Protestant  type  of  English 
thought,  the  critical,  independent  thinking  that 
has  always  marked  Protestantism.  England, 
however,  has  never  been  more  than  temporarily 
Protestant.  A  large  Catholic  element  under 
many  forms  has  ever  been  present.  Protestant- 
ism has  ever  asserted  the  individual  responsibil- 
ity directly  to  God,  and  in  doing  this  has  culti- 
vated a  set  of  virtues  of  a  manly  character. 
The  love  of  freedom,  veracity,  independence, 
and  personal  rectitude  have  been  bulwarks  of 

*  Life  of  Arnold,  Vol.  I.,  p.  298,  14th  edition, 
f  Life  of  Whately,  Vol.  I.,  p.  167.     (Quoted  also  by  Dean 
Church.) 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        213 

strength  for  Protestant  nations  as  rewards  for 
their  dwelling  on  important  truth.  At  the  same 
time  these  things  have  also  proved  a  source  at 
times  of  political  weakness.  The  quickened 
love  for  searching  after  truth  and  the  felt  im- 
portance of  honestly  maintaining  it,  the  oft  ex- 
cessive assertion  of  freedom  and  independence, 
has  led  to  the  flying  apart  of  the  various  schools 
of  protest. 

All  these  things  have  also  weakened  the  Prot- 
estant party  in  the  English  Established  Church. 
And  in  the  days  of  Protestant  supremacy  there 
has  been  neglect  to  properly  emphasize  phases 
of  truth  upon  which  the  Catholic  development 
loves  to  dwell.  So  that  it  has  often  happened 
that  reaction  has  taken  place  just  when  Protest- 
antism seemed  most  firmly  established.  This 
was  the  case  in  1820  and  thereabouts.  Ke- 
action  was  setting  in.  The  rise  of  the  separ- 
ate Methodist  organizations  going  out  from  her 
had  done  something  to  weaken  within  the  Es- 
tablished Church  the  purely  Protestant  forces. 
Ever  within  her  the  Catholic  ideal  and  the 
Protestant  ideal — the  principle  of  aristocratic 
centralization  and  of  democratic  popular  re- 
sponsibility— had  jostled  and  struggled  as  they 
had  in  the  state.  The  Tory  churchly  feeling 
was  outraged  by  the  attacks  of  a  secular  Liber- 
alism which  became  more  and  more  frequent. 


214     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

This  Tory  section  resisted  and  bitterly  resented 
the  removal  of  Catholic  disabilities.  Now  an 
attempt  to  abolish  the  subscription  to  tbe 
Articles  at  the  university  seemed  to  many 
the  last  straw.  No  great  religious  movement, 
however,  has  its  strength  in  mere  negations. 
Against  the  encroachments  of  Liberalism  within 
the  Establishment  itself  something  more  was 
needed  than  indignation  and  protest.  The  re- 
ligious enthusiasm  that  had  awakened  Method- 
ism, quickening  her  into  new  organization  for 
effective  missionary  activity;  that  had  made 
Evangelicalism  the  handmaid  of  domestic  po- 
litical reforms  ;  that  was  to  awaken  in  the  Broad 
Church  movement  the  thought  and  art  of  Eng- 
land, and  give  to  her  new  and  broad  literary  im- 
pulses ;  awoke  at  the  same  time  the  churchly, 
catholic  feeling  which  was  destined  to  entirely 
change  the  face  of  public  worship,  and  arouse 
new  conflicts  whose  end  is  not  yet. 

As  in  the  early  Methodist  movement  we  noted 
that,  in  the  beginning,  very  different  theological 
conceptions  were  bound  together  by  organiza- 
tion for  the  advance  of  personal  piety ;  and  as 
in  that  movement  we  may  trace  in  its  genesis 
many  differing  streams  of  thought  and  feeling; 
so  also  this  Catholic  revival  had  many  elements 
the  union  of  which  was  on  the  basis  simply  of 
this  common  Catholic  sympathy.  There  was 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        215 

represented  the  ritual  element,  whose  main  in- 
terest was  aesthetic,  historic,  and  tinged  with  the 
love  of  mystic  symbolism.  Quite  separate  from 
this  was  the  purely  High  Church  movement,  de- 
manding in  the  name  of  the  Church  the  control 
of  England's  moral  and  religious  future.  The 
Tory  revival,  awakened  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  and 
fostered  by  the  fact  that  Toryism  seemed  now 
no  longer  really  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  the 
average  Englishman,  made  the  appeal  of  the 
Ritualistic  High  Church  party  a  welcome  one 
to  many  whose  sense  of  historic  continuity  was 
being  outraged  by  the  boastful  confident  self- 
assertion  of  an  extremely  bold  and  irreverent 
school  of  politics. 

To  many  it  may  seem  strange  to  connect  this 
phase  of  English  life  with  the  Evangelical  Re- 
vival begun  a  hundred  years  before.  But  not 
only  does  so  high  and  sympathetic  a  student 
of  the  movement  as  Gladstone  do  so,  but  Car- 
dinal Newman  does  so  himself.  He  speaks  of 
Thomas  Scott,  of  Aston  Sanford,  as  the  man 
"  to  whom  (humanly  speaking)  I  almost  owe  my 
soul."  *  And  again :  "  This  man's  Catholic 
doctrine  of  the  warfare  between  the  City  of  God 
and  the  powers  of  darkness  was  also  deeply  im- 
pressed upon  my  mind  by  a  work  of  a  very 
opposite  character,  Law's  Serious  Call."  f  He 
*  Apologia  pro  vita  Sua,  1864,  p.  60.  f  P.  62. 


216     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

traces  his  serious  and  permanent  religious 
impressions  to  the  Evangelical  literature  that 
sprang  directly  out  of  Methodism.  Indeed  all 
he  seems  ever  to  have  known  of  Calvinism 
was  gathered  from  these  pages,  which  accounts 
for  the  strange  blunders  he  makes  in  giving  an 
account  of  Calvinism.*  He  says  at  one  time : 
"I  learned  to  give  up  my  remaining  Calvin- 
ism," f  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  never  seems 
to  have  known  historic  Calvinism  at  all.  The 
intellectual  coloring  and  the  form  his  religious 
life  took,  depended  on  a  combination  of  circum- 
stances. In  an  article  which  he  himself  wrote 
about  the  time  that  Tract  90  appeared,  New- 
man gives  as  factors  in  the  movement,  first  the 
influence  of  Walter  Scott,  in  pointing  a  restless 
and  superficial  age  back  to  the  glories  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  the  fact  that  this  interest  in 
medievalism  awakened  the  longing  for  some 
steadier  guide  than  passing  opinion.  He 
traces  also  the  influence  of  Coleridge's  demand 
for  a  deeper  philosophy  of  life  as  running 
through  the  movement;  although,  of  course, 
Coleridge's  questioning  seemed  to  Newman 
impious.  Thirdly  he  places  the  influence  of 
Wordsworth  and  Southey  as  among  the  potent 
factors  in  the  religious  restlessness  of  the  age.J 

*  Serious  Call,  p.  61.  f  Ibid.,  p.  66. 

%  The  State  of  Religious  Parties. 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        217 

Personally  Newman  was  most  influenced  by 
Hurrell  Froude,  of  whom  he  himself  writes  : 
"  He  was  a  high  Tory  of  the  Cavalier  stamp."  * 
"Walter  Scott  also  early  influenced  his  personal 
thought.  In  1871  he  wrote  :  "  I  have  ever  had 
such  a  devotion,  I  may  call  it,  to  Walter  Scott. 
As  a  boy  in  the  early  summer  mornings  I 
read  Waverley  and  Guy  Mannering  in  bed 
when  they  first  came  out  .  .  .  and  long 
before  that — I  think  when  I  was  eight  years  old 
— I  listened  eagerly  to  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Min- 
strel, which  my  mother  and  aunt  were  reading 
aloud."  f 

The  deciding  factor  was  the  surviving  Tory 
and  Non-juror  theology  and  tradition  of  Ox- 
ford. The  sacramentalism  of  Oxford  was  a 
lasting  memory.  Long  after  popular  disgust 
with  the  use  of  the  holy  communion  as  a  "  pick- 
lock "  to  office  had  swept  the  "  test  "  away,  Ox- 
ford lamented  this  as  a  surrender  of  religious 
principle  !  The  sacramentalism  of  the  earliest 
church,  no  doubt,  grew  out  of  the  mystery  wor- 
ship of  the  Greeks.  And  at  first  the  symbolism 
was  to  half  conceal  and  yet  instruct  in  the  mys- 
teries those  not  yet  initiated.  The  grasping  by 
a  separated  priesthood  within  the  Church  of 
functions  belonging  to  all,  the  early  exclusion 

*  Apologia,  p.  86. 

t  Memoirs  of  T.  R.  Hope  Scott,  Vol.  LL.,  p.  243. 


218     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

from  the  sacraments  of  the  neophytes,  the  claim- 
ing of  the  mediatorial  character  of  the  whole 
church  for  a  class  within  the  Church,  and  the 
gradual  exclusion  of  not  only  the  world  but 
the  lay  members  of  the  Church  from  privilege 
and  duty,  have  marked  the  sacerdotal  progress 
that  gradually  built  up  the  hierarchy  and  cor- 
rupted the  primitive  simplicity  of  the  gospel. 
The  mediatorial,  priestly,  and  solemn  character 
of  the  Church  has,  however,  never  received  from 
Protestantism  the  emphasis  it  deserves.  The 
sacerdotal  claims  of  Kome  can  only  be  fully  met 
by  acknowledging  them  as  the  gift  to  the  whole 
Church. 

The  power  of  the  High  Church,  or  Tractarian, 
movement  was  the  appeal  to  a  forgotten  or  neg- 
lected set  of  truths,  and  the  forceful  and  enthu- 
siastic advocacy  of  them  by  men  whose  serious 
and  self-sacrificing  zeal  none  can  deny.  With 
the  theological  questions  involved  "we  are  not 
now  more  particularly  concerned.  But  the 
understanding  between  the  Conservative  (Tory) 
elements  and  their  natural  allies  in  the  ritualiz- 
ing and  High  Church  movements  in  English  life 
was  at  first  made  difficult  by  their  intense  moral 
purpose,  to  which  the  Tory  party  in  1830  was 
quite  a  stranger.  The  High  Church  party  rep- 
resented an  entirely  different  conception  not 
only  of  the  Church,  but  also  of  the  state,  as 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        219 

over  against  the  low  views  of  radical  Liberalism 
at  that  day.  For  them  the  state  was  no  mere 
taxing  machine  interested  in  procuring  simply 
protection  for  the  man's  goods  and  temporal 
opportunity.  For  them,  as  for  Dr.  Arnold,  the 
state  was  a  moral  and  religious  institution  with 
ethical  and  religious  responsibilities  for  all  its 
children.  The  High  Church  party  stood  for 
the  assertion  of  paternalism  in  government, 
which  in  the  hands  of  a  limited  aristocracy 
justly  inspired  the  liberals  with  fear,  but  which 
in  the  hands  of  a  trained  democracy  is  becom- 
ing again  the  note  of  social  thought. 

One  of  the  immediate  social  effects  of  this 
churchly  revival  was  an  increased  demand  for 
purity  of  life  in  politics,  without  which  no  form 
of  government  has  value.  The  moral  tone  of 
Gladstone,  High  Churchman  as  he  was,  recon- 
ciled even  the  Dissenters  of  England  to  his 
leadership,  although  he  often  advocated  views 
far  removed  from  their  traditional  sympathies. 
It  stayed  the  hands  that  were  stretched  out  to 
complete  the  destruction  of  the  Establishment, 
and  enabled  Gladstone  to  obtain  for  the  dis- 
established church  of  Ireland  terms  that  left  her 
better  off  in  many  ways  than  before. 

It  is  quite  impossible  to  disassociate  this 
Tractarian  movement  from  the  inevitable  po- 
litical reaction  against  the  triumph  of  Liberal- 


220     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

ism  in  the  Keform  Bill.  It  gave  to  the  reaction 
that  distinct  religious  tone  which  Evangelicalism 
had  lent  to  the  great  reform  movements  of  1790 
to  1820  which  culminated  in  the  destruction  of 
slavery.  But,  as  Newman  complains  as  late 
as  1830-1832 :  "  The  Evangelical  party  itself 
seemed  with  its  late  successes  to  have  lost  that 
simplicity  and  unworldliness  which  I  admired 
so  much  in  Milnes  and  [Thomas]  Scott."  * 

Liberalism  had  become  formal,  critical,  and 
had  lost  moral  enthusiasm.  Its  attacks  upon 
the  bishops  were  not  made  because  it  wanted 
a  more  religious  leadership  in  the  Church,  but 
because  it  wanted  no  religious  leadership  at  all. 
It  was  not  with  the  deadness  of  ecclesiasticism 
that  it  had  its  quarrel,  but  in  the  very  existence 
of  any  system  of  ecclesiasticism.  The  Trac- 
tarian  movement  stood  for  a  religious  tradition 
that  had  and  will  always  have  a  place  in  Eng- 
lish hearts,  so  long  as  England  fulfils  her  mis- 
sion as  a  world  factor  in  God's  great  world 
purpose.  The  strength  of  Anglicanism  was  not 
in  what  we  must  pronounce  a  reactionary  and 
a  dismal  betrayal  of  truth  to  superstition,  but 
in  the  high  moral  enthusiasm  and  genuine  re- 
ligious zeal  with  which  it  took  up  arms  against 
just  the  same  foes  that  Morris  and  Kuskin  rec- 
ognized ;  namely,  the  secular  materialism  and 
*  Apologia,  p.  94,  London,  1864. 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        221 

vaunting  superficial  rationalism  that  began  to 
influence  English  minds  to  their  exceeding 
hurt. 

This  is  nowhere  more  plainly  seen  than  in 
the  desperate  and  successful  efforts  to  reach 
that  class  in  the  community  most  saturated  with 
this  superficial  materialism.  The  High  Church 
movement  changed  the  entire  character  of  much 
of  the  activity  of  the  Establishment.  Much  en- 
ergy was,  of  course,  squandered  in  making  mere 
proselytes.  That  mistake  every  religious  move- 
ment has  made  from  the  time  when  the  Judai- 
zers  followed  Paul  into  Galatia  and  made  life 
a  bitterness  to  him.  But  the  High  Churchmen 
flung  themselves  with  noble  enthusiasm  upon 
the  same  social  problems  with  which  the  oppos- 
ing wing  of  the  Church  was  also  seeking  to  deal. 
This  activity  is  the  note  of  the  true  Church, 
but  it  was  not  the  note  on  which  they  laid  the 
emphasis.  Nor  was  their  purpose  in  trying  to 
gain  control  of  England's  education  either  ig- 
noble or  unreasonable.  From  their  stand-point 
the  national  Establishment  had  to  give  account 
for  the  souls  of  all  England.  Their  complaint 
against  Dissent  was  that  it  was  irresponsible  in 
this  regard.  However  much  we  may  lament 
any  control  they  did  succeed  in  gaining  of  Eng- 
land's school,  their  stand-point  was  a  religious 
one  and  had  much  truth  in  it.  The  church  of 


222     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Christ  is  responsible  for  the  souls  of  all  men, 
and  gives  a  solemn  account  of  its  stewardship 
as  the  ages  roll  around.  But  the  church  of 
,  Christ  is  not  High  Church  Episcopacy,  but 
all  Christ's  friends  who  do  whatsoever  He  has 
commanded  them.  The  social  significance  of 
the  High  Church  movement  was,  however,  also 
reactionary.  It  had  its  basis  in  a  deep  distrust 
of  the  democracy,  and  in  overweening  confi- 
dence in  authority.  The  social  and  political 
condition  of  the  countries  in  which  churchly 
authority  had  had  widest  sweep  had  no  lessons 
for  the  Tractarians  because  their  ideals  were 
not  the  ideals  of  Protestants;  their  traditions 
were  the  traditions  of  Catholicism's  last  Tory 
stronghold.  They  appealed  to  large  elements 
in  English  life;  the  elements  that  stand  now 
for  vested  interests,  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
landed  aristocracy  that  historically  were  found 
on  the  side  of  James  the  Pretender,  Charles 
I.,  and  the  Catholicism  of  Laud.  Had  England's 
aristocracy  not  been  so  constantly  reinforced 
by  accessions  from  the  middle  classes,  the  con- 
flict would  have  at  some  time  been  even  more 
acute  than  in  Cromwell's  age,  or  in  1688.  But 
the  unity  of  the  aristocratic  reactionary  party 
has  never  been  complete.  Compromise  has 
prevented  extrema  measures.  England  has 
swung  back  and  forth  between  the  contending 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        223 

ideals,  and  the  determining  factor  has  always 
been  the  measure  of  religious  enthusiasm  that 
inspired  one  or  other  of  the  extreme  parties. 

The  moral  enthusiasm  that  had  transformed 
the  middle  classes  of  England,  and  that  had  car- 
ried so  many  measures  of  philanthropic  and  re- 
forming character  to  successful  issue,  had  been 
identified  in  the  minds  of  many  good  but  slow- 
thinking  men  with  extreme  political  opinions. 
The  old  Toryism  of  England  was  in  great  danger 
of  sinking  into  a  sordid  and  selfish  class  bent 
simply  upon  obstruction  and  the  preservation 
of  vested  rights.  Such  a  state  of  things  would 
have  invited  violent  collision  in  several  times  of 
strain,  and  the  French  situation  of  1848  might 
have  been  reproduced. 

The  chief  service  rendered  by  the  High 
Church  reaction  was  to  temper  the  natural 
selfishness  engendered  by  historic  privilege  and 
power  with  a  religious  thinking  that  appealed 
in  a  peculiar  way  to  the  reactionary  party.  It 
was  long  before  the  Tory  reaction  was  sufficient- 
ly tempered  to  command  the  respect  of  the  na- 
tion. The  leadership  was  not  at  all  fortunate 
from  this  point  of  view.  Had  Gladstone  found 
the  Conservative  party  on  the  plane  of  to-day, 
he  would  probably  never  have  drifted  over  to 
the  leadership  of  the  Liberals.  The  secular 
and  selfish  character  of  Toryism  forced  Glad- 


224     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

stone  to  the  advocacy  of  change  and  democracy. 
The  very  principle  of  religious  toleration  was 
born  in  him,  not  of  natural  disposition,  but  as  a 
result  of  the  fierce  debates  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  Act  (1850-1851),  which  led  him  at  last  to 
disestablish  the  Irish  Church.  In  1833  Arnold 
complained  of  the  moral  condition  of  the  Tory 
party :  "  It  is  not  the  Duke  of  Wellington  nor 
Sir  Robert  Peel  who  would  do  harm,  but  the 
base  party  that  they  would  bring  in  their  train. 
.  .  .  and  all  the  tribe  of  selfish  and  ignorant 
lords  and  county  squires  and  clergymen,  who 
would  irritate  the  feeling  of  the  people  to  mad- 
ness." *  It  is  always  quite  pitiful  to  see  how 
the  churchly  mind  seems  to  regard  the  slightest 
social  innovation  as  a  possible  attack  upon  the 
institutions  with  which  it  is  identified.  The 
squire  and  country  parson  have  always  been 
bulwarks  of  reaction. 

On  the  churchly  mind  the  Oxford  movement 
had  a  wholesome  effect.  It,  under  the  guise  of 
— for  Protestants — impossible  ecclesiastical  con- 
ceits, awoke  a  spirit  of  fierce  self-devotion,  and 
changed  the  good-natured,  hunting,  shooting 
country  parson  of  old,  into  an  earnest,  even  if 
narrow  and  bigoted,  servant  of  those  whom  he 
could  reach.  The  High  Church  clergyman  be- 
came the  rival  of  the  Methodist,  Evangelical, 
*  Life  of  Arnold,  Vol.  I.,  p.  303. 


THE  HIGH  OHUROH  REACTION        225 

and  Dissenting  clergy,  in  ministering  to  the 
rural  population. 

In  this  work  the  High  Church  party  had  an 
advantage  over  the  Broad  Church  men  in  the 
far  more  definite  and  positive  character  of  their 
teaching.  Evangelicalism  had  trained  men  to 
definite  statements  of  what  was  known  as  "  the 
truth."  There  was  no  hesitation  in  Evangeli- 
calism's advance  of  opinions.  As  the  party  lost 
ground  through  formality  and  social  apathy,  the 
people  whom  it  had  trained  felt  the  need  of  this 
same  definiteness  in  the  character  of  the  teach- 
ing they  accepted ;  of  all  this  the  High  Church- 
men had  enough  and  to  spare.  In  this  sharp 
and  clear-cut  teaching  the  Broad  Churchmen 
were  wofully  deficient.  Nor  did  they  easily 
agree  among  themselves. 

In  1848  the  last  echoes  of  the  Chartist  move- 
ment were  already  dying  away  after  the  Lon- 
don fiasco.  The  repeal  of  the  corn  laws  and 
returning  prosperity,  together  with  the  inevit- 
able readjustment  of  human  life  to  changed 
conditions,  gave  the  reaction  opportunity  to 
gather  its  strength.  This  reaction  was  as  yet 
little  touched  by  the  religious  movement,  then 
confined  in  both  its  Broad  Church  and  its  High 
Church  aspects  to  small  academic  groups. 
"When  Newman  went  over  to  Borne  he  himself 
wrote,  "Liberalism  won  in  a  clear  field."  By 
15 


226     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

liberalism  Newman  meant  all  that  he  abhorred 
as  radical  innovation  and  free  inquiry. 

The  intellectual  side  of  religious  questions  re- 
ceived new  and  earnest  attention  because  of  the 
polemics  of  the  High  Church  party.  But,  on 
the  whole,  the  period  after  the  passing  of  the 
repeal  of  the  corn  laws  until  the  great  reform 
period  under  Gladstone  has  little  to  boast  of  in 
the  way  of  social  activity.  Senseless  panics 
were  shamefully  used  for  party  purposes,  and 
not  even  the  great  popularity  of  Cobden,  Bright, 
and  Gladstone,  could  calm  public  feeling  or  re- 
sist the  reaction.  Yet  in  some  ways  the  deep 
hold  that  the  religious  way  of  looking  at  life  had 
taken  is  marked  in  the  appeals  made  in  the  name 
of  religion  for  "  Peace  on  Earth  and  Good- Will 
to  Men  "  in  the  series  of  peace  conferences  held 
between  1848  and  1851  in  Brussels,  Paris, 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  London,  Manchester, 
and  Edinburgh,  which  are  identified  with  the 
names  of  Cobden  and  Bright. 

The  withdrawal  of  Newman  and  many  others 
to  the  Church  of  Eome  apparently  only  left  the 
field  to  the  Evangelical,  Broad  Church,  and  or- 
thodox parties  in  the  Church.  The  Noncon- 
formist attitude  seems  to  have  been  naturally 
one  of  deep  hostility  to  the  claims,  often  made 
in  haughty  and  thoroughly  pharisaic  spirit,  of 
exclusive  possession  of  the  Church.  As  a  matter 


THE  man  CHURCH  REACTION      227 

of  fact,  the  High  Church  party  was  not  dead, 
and  both  parties  to  the  alternate  struggle  be- 
tween Protestantism  and  the  Eoman  type  of 
Catholicism  were  and  are  still  gathering  their 
forces.  The  secular  Liberalism  was  apparently 
more  or  less  profoundly  moved  by  the  earnest- 
ness and  reality  given  to  religious  life  by  the  two 
important  struggles  made  against  its  claims — 
the  High  Church  movement  in  England  and  the 
Free  Church  secession  in  Scotland.  Social  re- 
formers began  to  recognize  the  power  of  religious 
feeling,  and  the  endeavors  from  1848  onward  to 
find  a  common  standing  ground  for  religious 
social  activity  on  an  ecclesiastical  and  yet  an 
undogmatic  basis  have  not  ceased. 

•It  is  hard,  amid  the  noises  of  the  conflict  now 
waging  between  the  Romanizing  Catholic  reac- 
tion and  the  rising  spirit  of  Protestant  opposi- 
tion, to  look  over  the  field  covered  by  this  phase 
of  the  religious  movement  and  to  rightly  esti- 
mate its  social  significance. 

One  thing  must  be  said.  The  High  Church 
party  has  historic  claims.  William  Law  and 
the  Non-jurors  belonged  distinctly  to  habits  of 
thought  identical  with  those  revived  to-day. 
The  "  Methodists  "  were  High  Churchmen,  and 
for  the  most  part  were  only  unconsciously 
forced  from  that  position.  The  rubrics  and 
the  homilies  bear  witness  to  a  constant  recogni- 


228     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

tion  of  elements  the  Evangelical  party  took  no 
notice  of.  The  rapid  spread  of  the  view  of  life 
and  religion  fostered  by  the  High  Church  party, 
shows  how  large  the  area  was  of  English  public 
opinion  never  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the 
extreme  Protestant  position.  The  power  of  the 
appeal  was  that  the  demand  for  social  service 
was  made  in  the  name  of  traditions  and  past 
practices  still  dear  to  many,  and  appealing  to 
very  many  more.  In  the  evolution  of  religious 
life  one  thing  stands  out  plainly — that  opinions, 
dogmas,  and  rituals  make  their  way  on  the 
wings  of  social  service.  The  power  of  the  High 
Church  party  is  not  scholarship.  One  has  only 
to  compare  the  History  of  the  Arians  by  John 
Henry  Newman,  with  any  fairly  good  modern 
historic  work  to  see  how  vastly  inferior  in  both 
range  and  scholarship  Newman  was  to  men  with 
a  third  of  his  influence.  Nor  was  the  power  of 
it  to  be  found  in  a  return  to  Catholicism,  for 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  with  a  far  more 
comprehensive  scheme,  had  been  working  for 
years  in  England  without  any  such  result. 

The  problem  is  to  be  met  farther  back  in  the 
history  of  men's  complex  evolution.  Two  ex- 
treme conceptions  of  society  meet  in  the  Prot- 
estant and  Catholic  parties  in  England ;  and 
the  power  of  each  is  the  religious  enthusiasm 
embodied  in  this  social  conception.  The  Catho- 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        229 

lie  party  represents  benevolent  tyranny ;  the 
want  of  faith  in  the  average  man  that  longs  for 
authority  outside  of  the  man  to  keep  him  on 
the  way  of  righteousness.  This  feeling  shows 
itself  in  the  scorn  and  contempt  that  the  Trac- 
tarians  pour  out  upon  the  "  pride  of  reason." 
For  the  Catholic  mind  and  temper  submission 
to  authority  becomes  a  virtue  for  its  own  sake, 
careless  often  even  of  the  kind  of  authority  to 
which  submission  is  rendered.  It  is  easy  to 
realize  how  a  tribal  life  might  at  a  certain  stage 
of  its  progress  depend  for  its  safety  upon  just 
such  unquestioning  submission.  The  military 
spirit  fosters  the  same  temper,  and  breeds  the 
same  ideal  of  virtue.  In  fact  virtue  among 
the  Romans  was  unflinching  physical  courage. 
The  Catholic  reaction  naturally  had  its  appro- 
priate field  among  those  accustomed  to  rule, 
and  who  regarded  submission  as  a  chief  virtue. 
The  social  significance  of  the  reaction  was  there- 
fore a  recall  of  the  virtue  that  had  high  place  in 
the  past,  and  that  properly  directed  has  a  place 
in  the  future. 

Protestantism  represents  broadly  the  inde- 
pendent spirit  that  brooks  no  outside  interfer- 
ence. Luther  was  truly  of  a  Protestant  spirit 
when  denouncing,  on  the  basis  of  his  subjective 
and  very  narrow  experience,  the  Book  of  James 
as  an  "epistle  of  straw."  He  was  in  a  more 


230     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Catholic  mood  when  the  weight  of  mere  tradi- 
tion and  custom  made  him  break  with  Zwingli, 
because  he  felt  that  he  was  "  of  another  spirit." 

The  excessive  Protestantism  of  the  Evangeli- 
cals was  tempered  by  exceedingly  unhistoric 
traditions  to  which  they  appealed,  and  that  of 
the  Broad  Church  men  by  the  feeling  for  art 
and  poetry  that  gave  them  a  larger  contact  with 
the  past.  And  yet  it  may  have  been  needed  in 
the  providence  of  God,  by  over-emphasis  upon 
the  Catholic  spirit  and  claims,  to  remind  men 
that  social  experience  is  more  than  any  one 
man's  individual  experiences,  and  that  any  faith 
in  a  present  democracy  implies  also  faith  in  all 
past  democracies.  The  authority  of  the  past 
over  the  present  has  dwarfed  and  hindered 
growth  in  countries  under  the  Roman  tradi- 
tions ;  but  the  way  of  life  is  not  by  dispensing 
with  all  authority,  but  trying  the  traditions 
whether  they  be  of  God  or  no. 

The  unchecked  progress  of  the  High  Church 
party  would  mean  social  reaction  to  the  point 
of  a  more  or  less  benevolent  paternal  ecclesias- 
ticism.  The  treatment  meted  out  to  Dr.  Harnp- 
den  showed  in  what  spirit  all  opposition  would 
have  been  put  down.  Paternal  aristocracy  of 
an  ecclesiastical  type  is  not  what  most  thought- 
ful men  are  likely  to  demand  as  the  remedy  for 
existing  evils.  At  the  same  time  it  is  perfectly 


THE  man  OHURCH  REACTION      231 

plain  that  the  reaction  has  a  social  lesson  worth 
considering.  No  such  movement  has  its 
strength  in  falsehood.  The  extreme  views  of 
Church  and  state  meet  in  the  Radical  and  High 
Church  positions  and  still  await  the  compromise 
of  the  future. 

To  discover  this  extreme  social  position  it  is 
not  to  Newman  we  had  best  go.  For  Newman 
was  both  too  metaphysical  and  too  theological 
to  deal  with  the  practical  and  fundamental  prob- 
lem involved.  This  problem  is  not  political, 
as  Dean  Stanley  would  have  us  believe,*  but 
social  in  a  far  deeper  sense.  And  no  man  who 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  movement  more 
clearly  reveals  this  than  does  William  Ward,  the 
author  of  The  Ideal  Cliurch. 

As  early  as  1832  we  find  him  proposing  in 
the  Oxford  Union,  the  motion  that  an  absolute 
monarchy  is  a  more  desirable  form  of  govern- 
ment than  the  constitution  proposed  by  Lord 
John  Russell  .f  And  it  is  characteristic  of  the 
temper  of  Oxford  that  the  proposition  was  lost 
by  only  six  votes.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Ward 
professed  perfect  ignorance  of  history.  "  The 
details  of  the  historical  inquiry  were,  he  con- 
sidered, beyond  his  capacity — so  far  as  giving 

*  Edinburgh  Review,  April,  1881,  Article  on  The  Oxford 
School. 

t  Life  of  Ward,  p.  20. 


232     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

any  positive  judgment  went,  and  his  trust  in 
Mr.  Newman  in  such  a  matter  was  far  more 
confident  than  any  independent  opinion  to 
which  the  utmost  study  would  have  led  him."  * 
For  "Ward  the  struggle  was  with  agnosticism 
and  revelation,  but  what  interests  us  in  his 
discussion  is  the  place  he  gives  to  an  external 
authority  "regulating  the  orthodoxy  of  her 
children  "  and  defining  the  limits  of  all  belief. 
Throughout  the  Ideal  Oliurch  runs  an  entirely 
different  social  conception  from  that  of  Pro- 
testant Democracy.  "The  high  and  low,  rich 
and  poor,  one  with  another,  shall  have  the  great 
principle  daily  and  hourly  impressed  on  their 
minds,  by  the  Church,  of  their  soul's  salvation 
being  the  one  thing  needful "  (Italics  ours) ;  t  and 
the  Church  is  "ever  on  the  watch  to  catch 
souls."  %  This  Church  is  a  separate  outward 
organization  for  "  training  up  saints,"  a  special 
class  in  the  religious  community  with  peculiar 
responsibilities  of  a  spiritual  kind,  and  needing 
special  spiritual  preparation.§  And  the  highest 
office  of  the  Church  "  is  to  train,  not  ordinary 
Christians  [Italics  ours]  but  those  destined  to 
be  Saints."  ||  These  Saints  are  always  spelt 
with  a  capital  and  "  are  the  very  hidden  life  of  a 
Church ;  and  Saints  cannot  be  nurtured  on  less 

*  Life  of  Ward,  p.  95.      f  Ibid.,  p.  10.      J  Ibid.,  p.  15. 
§  Cf.  pages  16  and  17.  ||  Ibid.,  p.  18. 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        233 

than  the  full  Catholic  doctrine."  *  Orthodox}7  is 
established  dogma,  and  Salvation  depends  there- 
fore upon  orthodoxy.  Hence  a  priest  will  very 
carefully  and  habitually  use  language  precise- 
ly orthodox,  even  on  details  whereof  his  own 
spiritual  advancement  or  else  intellectual  acu- 
men has  not  yet  enabled  him  to  discern  the 
essential  importance."  f  With  the  accuracy  of 
the  definition  given  the  Church  we  do  not  deal. 
Sufficient  is  it  to  remark  that  the  monarchical 
and  aristocratic  temper  in  its  benevolent  aspects 
forms  the  model.  "  The_Cluirch,-is-  toj?e  the 
poor  man's  court  of  justice  "  J  and  "it  devolves 
on  the  Church,  therefore,  to  assert  in  her  own 
courts  the  rights  of  the  poor. "  §  Thus  through- 
out the  conception,  not  only  of  the  Church  but 
of  society,  runs  the  thought  of  a  visible  and 
formal  centre  of  authority  existing  independ- 
ently of  the  life  it  creates  and  directs.  The 
"ordinary  Christian"  is  in  contact  with  God 
through  the  intercession  of  those  nearer  Him. 
Just  as  the  "  ordinary "  citizen  must  approach 
the  king  by  someone  who  has  his  ear.  Hence 
there  is  "  the  importance  of  gaming  to  our- 
selves intercessors  against  His  final  judgment," 
asserted  by  Catholics,  and  "  our  experience  in 
England  does  not  enable  us  to  deny  this."ii 

*  Life  of  Ward,  p.  20.  f  Ibid.,  p.  21. 

J  Ibid.,  p.  31.          §  Ibid.,  p.  31.        [|  Ibid.)  p.  86. 


234     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

In  the  very  conception  of  orthodoxy  there  is 
the  essence  of  faith  in  a  benevolent  despotism, 
to  whom  submission  is  a  virtue  for  its  own 
sake.  God  is  thought  of  as  ruling  by  proxy ; 
"The  Church"  being  His  representative  on 
earth.  All  this  is  the  natural  product  of  a  view 
of  society  held  in  monarchical  and  aristocratic 
societies,  and  was  the  natural  ideal  of  High 
Churchmen,  whether  in  the  time  of  Laud  or 
in  the  days  of  Nonjuring  theology.  No  wonder, 
therefore,  that  Ward  says:  "Two  principles 
especially,  closely  and  indissolubly  connected 
with  each  other,  seem  to  me  so  vitally  impor- 
tant at  the  present  time  that  I  could  wish  their 
very  names  were  familiar  to  us  all  '  as  house- 
hold words,'  the  one,  the  absolute  supremacy  of 
conscience  in  moral  and  religious  questions,  the 
other  the  high  sacredness  of  hereditary  relig- 
ion" *  The  second  takes  away  the  first,  be- 
cause the  first  is  to  be  in  absolute  subjection 
to  the  second.  "Again,  the  education  of  the 
whole  people  is  now  allowed,  by  very  general 
consent,  to  be  in  itself  the  legitimate  office  of 
the  Church."  The  relation  of  the  Roman 
Church  to  the  State  in  the  Middle  Ages  is  the 
author's  ideal  of  the  normal  and  right  rela- 
tion. The  churchly  reaction  found,  therefore, 
a  natural  expression  in  the  revival  of  the  art 

*  Life  of  Ward,  pp.  44-47. 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        235 

of  the  Middle  Ages;  but  there  was  no  his- 
torical discrimination  between  the  two  great 
lines  of  development,  the  free  and  democratic 
Gothic  and  the  Southern  Classic.  This  arose 
from  the  fact,  no  doubt,  that  the  real  meaning 
of  the  Middle  Age  development  has  only  re- 
cently been  disclosed.  The  reaction  was  to  the 
centralized  and  monarchical  and  not  to  the 
guild  and  free  city.  This  is  seen  still  more 
plainly  in  the  hatred  for  not  only  the  reformers, 
but  more  especially  for  the  Teutonic  reformers. 
"Alas,  I  found,  in  Luther's  commentary  [on 
Galatians]  no  such  points  of  sympathy  and 
agreement  as  I  had  hoped.  Never  was  my 
conscience  so  shocked  and  revolted  by  any 
work  not  openly  professing  immorality,"  sighs 
"Ward  ;  *  "I  can  see  nothing  in  it  showing  any 
spirituality  of  mind  whatever."  f 

In  the  evolution  of  human  government  two 
distinct  principles  must  make  themselves  felt. 
On  the  one  hand  the  authority  of  the  national 
leadership  must  at  times  clothe  itself  with  abso- 
lute supremacy  for  the  sake  of  the  social  organi- 
zation. The  tribe  that  obeyed  implicitly  even 
a  brutal  and  inferior  chieftain  would  most  cer- 
tainly easily  maintain  the  contest  with  far 
superior  strength  and  leadership  divided  in 
counsels  and  questioningly  obeyed.  The  politi. 
*  Life  of  Ward,  p.  169,  footnote.  f  Idem. 


236     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

cal  and  social  significance  of  the  Jesuit  reaction 
is  quite  clear.  The  Protestant  counsels  divided 
and  the  leadership  questioned,  the  enthusiasm 
of  reviving  monarchical  centralization  had  an 
easy  task.  On  the  other  hand  stagnation  is 
only  prevented  when  in  the  national  life  indi- 
vidual initiative  has  at  times  the  fullest  play. 
It  was  the  lack  of  this,  among  other  things, 
that  made  Italy,  with  all  her  splendid  capacity, 
prove  so  poor  an  antagonist  for  the  powerful 
North. 

England  was  still  in  1832  and  is  now  in  her 
constitution  deeply  Tory,  using  the  word  as 
Hallam  has  made  it  classic.  Even  her  advance 
must  be  along  the  lines  of  an  historic  develop- 
ment. Just  because  the  national  Church  close- 
ly represents  the  ruling  mind  of  English  life  it 
was  safe  to  predict  the  recrudescence  of  the  al- 
lied Catholic  and  Eoman  spirit,  together  with 
the  reassertion  of  the  older  monarchical  and 
conservative  temper.  The  real  difference  be- 
tween the  High  Church  party  as  represented  by 
such  an  one  as  Ward  was  not  nearly  so  much 
theological  as  he  supposed  it  to  be.  It  is  quite 
safe  to  say  that  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  as  set  forth  at  Trent,  were  it  to  stand 
alone,  would  never  separate  now  the  Melancthon 
type  of  Lutheran  theology  from  the  Roman 
communion.  Ward  attributes  Luther's  person- 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        237 

al  piety,  so  far  as  he  had  it,  "  to  the  unspeakable 
blessings  of  a  Catholic  education  and  monastic 
discipline  .  .  .  before  he  turned  his  mind 
to  the  invention  of  these  blasphemies,"  i.e.,  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith.* 

It  is  the  longing  on  the  part  of  the  human 
soul  for  authority,  born  of  the  dependence 
of  the  child  for  so  long  upon  parents ;  the 
fierceness  of  the  struggle  with  life  and  sin  ;  the 
unsatisfactory  results  of  our  personal  conduct 
of  our  own  life,  that  makes  the  churchly  and 
the  Tory  reaction  both  in  religion  and  in  social 
conduct  so  easy  and  so  tempting  an  escape  for 
many  minds.  In  the  confidence  and  vigor  of 
successful  struggle  the  Protestant  temper  can 
see  no  possibility  of  any  return  to  worn-out 
formulae  and  to  traditions  of  the  past.  The 
time  comes  when  the  Protestant  temper  has 
exhausted  its  first  vigor  in  assaults  against  the 
inert  mass  of  ignorance,  habit,  and  customs 
more  or  less  defensible.  Then  comes  the  time 
when  every  mistake  made  is  remembered,  every 
beauty  neglected  is  recalled,  when  the  mind  and 
heart  seek  rather  support  than  conflict,  when 
submission  is  easier  than  analysis ;  at  this 
stage  dogmatic  claims  to  guide  and  control  made 
in  the  name  of  past  triumphs  and  supported 
by  the  memories  of  genuine  services  easily  gain 

*  Life  of  Ward,  p.  171,  footnote. 


238     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

again  the  upper  hand,  and  assert  and  exercise  a 
welcome  tyranny  over  the  soul. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  such  social  reaction 
that  the  High  Church  movement  took  its  rise. 
It  spoke  to  minds  troubled  and  perplexed  by 
the  political  philosophy  of  Bentham  and  Mill, 
linked  as  it  was  with  doubt  and  scepticism. 
Nay,  in  John  Stuart  Mill  himself  there  are  the 
signs  of  that  inevitable  reaction  from  the  dis- 
cursive reason  as  sole  guide  to  the  mystery  of 
life  and  death.  Much  more  was  this  the  case 
in  many  minds  much  more  thoroughly  imbued 
with  reverence  for  the  historic  triumphs  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  much  more  receptive  for 
the  confident  appeals  a  powerful  priesthood 
awakened  in  the  Church.  Not  many  found 
themselves  able  to  think  their  way  through 
Mill's  reasoning,  or  able  to  follow  Newman  as 
he  battled  in  the  Grammar  of  Assent  with  the 
great  and  fundamental  problems.  When,  how- 
ever, in  the  imagery  of  the  altar  and  in  the  ac- 
cents of  religious  art,  men  were  bade  link  them- 
selves to  a  triumphant  Catholic  Church  that 
would  do  battle  for  them,  many  honest  and  yet 
weary  minds  assented  and  found  peace.  The 
half-forgotten  melodies  of  an  older  age  first 
stirred  men's  souls.  Keble  and  Scott  spoke  to 
a  generation  tired  of  corn-laws  and  the  din  of 
progress  and  reform.  The  grotesquely  inad- 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        239 

equate  means  men  advocated  for  establishing 
material  harmony  on  earth  were  farther  empha- 
sized by  the  outburst  of  war  and  national  hate 
that  made  the  peace  congresses  of  Frankfort 
and  Edinburgh  seem  the  mocking  voices  of  de- 
ceiving spirits.  Far  from  the  clatter  of  noisy 
conflict,  away  from  the  unfruitful  strife  of  many 
leaders  in  their  assaults  on  antiquity,  preju- 
dice, and  custom,  visions  of  peaceful  growth  in 
graces  which  extreme  Protestantism  has  seldom 
successfully  cultivated,  lured  many  hearts  to 
promised  peace  under  the  banner  of  authority 
and  tradition. 

As  the  monastery  of  the  Middle  Ages  afford- 
ed a  place  of  welcome  refuge  to  hundreds  of 
souls  who  felt  themselves  spent  in  the  struggle, 
or  who  shrunk  from  the  brutalities  of  the  daily 
conflict  of  life,  so  in  the  social  reaction  after 
1848  hundreds  turned  again  to  see  if  in  the 
boasted  unity  of  the  Eoman  idea  there  might 
not  be  found  rest  and  spiritual  peace.  Natu- 
rally the  drift  was  toward  Borne.  The  via  media 
of  Newman  was  more  or  less  felt  to  be  a  farce 
from  the  beginning.  The  yearning  was  not  for 
Catholic  custom  nor  for  Catholic  theology,  but 
for  Eoman  authority.  If  anyone  doubts  this 
he  has  but  to  examine  carefully  the  underlying 
philosophies  of  the  leaders  of  the  High  Church 
movement.  Ward  starts  as  a  pronounced  fol- 


240     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

lower  of  Kant,  though  lie  nowhere  seems  to 
have  made  him  consciously  the  teacher.  New- 
man's Grammar  of  Assent  has  almost  nothing 
of  the  modern  Protestant  spirit,  while  Keble 
and  Froude  dallied  in  the  odds  and  ends  of 
African  speculation,  whose  memories  made  up 
the  Latin  theologies  of  the  post-Mcean  period. 
There  is  no  philosophic  or  theological  unity 
binding  them  together.  Ward  more  than  con- 
fesses this.*  The  unity  of  external  authority  is, 
of  course,  a  myth.  The  infallibility  of  Borne 
must  be  limited  to  faith  and  morals  in  order 
not  to  run  in  the  face  of  all  evident  history.  It 
must  be  farther  exercised  ex  cathedra.  The  de- 
cisions that  are  thus  "  authoritative "  are  few 
and  far  between.  What  the  soul  wants  is  not 
definite  dogma  but  daily  direction.  The  con- 
fessional and  not  papal  infallibility  is  the  real 
strength  of  authority.  The  power  of  the  con- 
fessional is  the  indefinite  claim  of  an  infallible 
authority  that  must  be  denied  in  detail  although 
banked  upon  as  a  whole.  The  power  of  the 
past,  and  the  hold  that  social  tradition  has 
over  the  human  heart,  these  are  the  sources  of 
strength  in  the  High  Church  reaction  of  the 
closing  years  of  the  century. 

To  a  lesser  degree  the  same  High  Church  re- 
action affected  the  more  thoroughly  Protestant 

*  Ideal  Church,  p.  .20 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        241 

bodies,  and  will  in  all  probability  still  further 
affect  them.  Critical  discussions  of  the  author- 
ity of  the  written  word  have  provoked  a  sim- 
ilar desire  to  close  all  discussion  by  formal  dog- 
matic utterance.  The  divisions  of  Protestantism 
are  no  longer  on  dogmatic  lines,  in  which  little 
interest  at  all  is  taken,  but  only  on  the  lines  of 
cult  and  traditional  habit.  The  authority  of 
the  past  over  the  present  along  all  lines,  social, 
economic,  scientific,  as  well  as  philosophical,  is 
the  real  issue.  Its  reality  no  one  disputes,  but 
its  amount  and  where  it  is  lodged  form  the  liv- 
ing questions.  High  Church  reaction,  whether 
Roman  or  Protestant,  seeks  an  external  and 
tangible  expression  of  this  authority  of  the  past 
as  final.  To  oppose  the  dreaded  onslaughts 
of  revolutionary  thought,  either  in  social  or 
philosophic  dress,  it  seems  necessary  to  many  to 
clothe  the  authority  of  the  past  with  either  the 
form  of  council,  or  with  antiquity,  or  a  living  pa- 
pal voice,  or  the  unsearchable  poverty  of  original 
manuscripts  which  no  one  has  ever  seen.  In 
such  external  authority  the  future  is  to  have  a 
safeguard  from  the  storms  of  social  disturbance 
that  beginning  with  1792  have  swept  on  in  suc- 
ceeding waves  up  to  the  present  day.  It  is 
truly  felt  that  the  social  condition  is  at  the 
bottom  a  religious  question.  It  is  also  truly 

felt  that  the  only  authority  that  can  speak  peace 
16 


24:2     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

to  the  stormy  waters  is  the  voice  of  religion, 
and  it  has  seemed  often  to  trembling  and  igno- 
rant disciples  in  the  boat  to  be  helpless  in  fatal 
slumber. 

It  seems  evident  to  Protestant  minds  that 
neither  the  verbal  accuracy  of  lost  manuscripts 
nor  the  dogmatic  infallibility  of  a  good  old  man 
when  pronouncing  ex  cathedra  on  matters  of 
faith  and  morals  can  really  still  the  storm.  The 
godly  saint  in  the  Dissenting  chapel  wants  rest 
in  accepting  the  imperfect  translation  of  im- 
perfect Hebrew  and  Greek  texts  as  the  very 
word  of  the  living  God.  And  the  humble 
Irish  or  Italian  peasant  longs  to  feel  that  the 
faithful  priest  at  the  confessional  is  in  very  deed 
speaking  from  God  to  his  soul.  Nor  is  it  ab- 
stract faith  and  morals  that  the  chapel  saint  and 
French  peasant  want  light  upon,  but  the  every- 
day application  of  known  rules  to  an  unknown 
life.  It  is  a  vain  scholasticism  that  disputes 
about  any  infallibility  that  is  less  than  suffi- 
cient to  give  daily  and  infallible  guidance  in 
actual  practical  every-day  decisions  covering  the 
whole  range  of  social  duty  and  social  experi- 
ence. 

The  Protestant  mind  faces  the  fact  that,  how- 
ever undoubted  is  the  authority  of  the  past  over 
the  present,  it  is  not  final,  that  above  and 
beyond  the  past  the  kindly  father's  educating 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        243 

hand  is  leading  on  and  up  to  a  better  future 
However  we  may  mourn  the  absence  of  a  final  and 
definite  infallible  answer  to  the  thousand  ques- 
tions of  our  troubled  life,  it  is  in  the  moments 
of  reaction  and  impaired  faith  that  the  want 
seems  greatest.  It  is  good  for  us  that  Christ 
is  gone  away,  and  that  on  a  living  communion 
with  a  present  spirit  we  must  find  the  solu- 
tion not  of  abstract  and  interesting  but  chiefly 
philosophical  questions  of  definition  in  faith 
and  morals,  but  of  pressing  present-day  ques- 
tions of  wrong  and  human  infamy.  Our  edu- 
cation is  this  walking  with  the  unseen.  The 
felt  presence  of  this  unseen  spirit  made  John 
Wesley  and  Whitefield,  Wilberforce  and  Clark- 
son,  William  Penn,  Maurice,  and  Newman  re- 
solutely sure  of  duty  until  death,  though  the 
form  in  which  that  religious  certainty  clothed 
itself  along  social,  political,  theological,  and 
philosophical  lines  are  forms  which  often,  like 
shells  upon  the  beaches,  are  now  but  the  empty 
chambers  filled  with  the  vibrations  that  mock 
us  with  their  mimic  murmurs. 

There  was,  no  doubt,  a  pressing  need  of 
renewed  emphasis  upon  the  past  social  ex- 
perience at  a  time  when  men  were  putting  their 
faith  in  paper  constitutions  and  not  spiritual 
character.  Austria  secured  her  constitution  in 
1848,  and  the  South  American  republics  have 


244     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

the  largest  theoretical  political  freedom.     But 
what  do  these  things  avail  ? 

The  High  Church  movement  emphasized  the 
need  of  individual  and  national  repentance.  The 
Ideal  Church  has  far  better  passages  than 
those  we  have  found*  room  for ;  passages  filled 
with  lofty  conceptions  of  righteousness  and  res- 
toration through  the  mercy  and  the  forgiveness 
of  God.  It  is  filled,  as  are  filled  the  yearnings 
of  the  Christian  Year-book,  with  the  spirit  of 
longing  for  a  final  deliverance  from  sin  and 
death.  The  national  Church  awoke  to  new 
sense  of  national  responsibility.  The  very  glori- 
fication of  the  past,  oft  inaccurate  and  unlris- 
toric,  awakened  longing  that  stirred  hearts  not 
filled  by  the  spirit  of  reaction.  Morris  and  his 
socialists  glory  in  the  same  mediaeval  triumphs ; 
and  the  sense  of  historic  continuity,  of  the  in- 
numerable cloud  of  witnesses  beholding  our 
work,  sobered  and  chastened  the  turbulent 
spirit  of  the  British  working-man.  There  is 
no  fear  of  the  reaction  working  permanent  evil 
if  the  enthusiasm  for  righteousness  saves  Prot- 
estantism from  wasting  her  resources  in  vain 
arid  weakening  scholastic  discussion.  This  mis- 
take cost  us  many  candlesticks  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  when  reaction  was  more  spirit- 
ual and  therefore  more  successful  than  the  dry 
formalism  of  the  age. 


THE  HIGH  CHURCH  REACTION        245 

Living  issues  need  living  answers.  Not  in 
Rome,  nor  in  lost  manuscripts,  are  we  to  learn 
the  significance  of  the  social  storms  that  sweep 
about  us,  but  under  the  sway  of  the  Comforter 
speaking  in  present-day  tongue  and  giving  the 
seal  of  approval  in  advancing  righteousness  ;  if 
we  will  to  do  the  will  of  God  we  shall  know 
of  the  doctrine.  The  voice  of  God  did  speak 
with  religious  certainty  to  the  past,  but  it  is 
not  with  the  religious  certainties  of  the  past 
that  the  present  can  be  quieted.  From  the 
written  word  breaks  new  light,  from  the  past 
come  new  inspirations,  for  us  the  certainty  is 
based  on  the  faith  in  a  Father  who  will  never 
leave  us  nor  forsake  us,  and  to  whom  we  can  di- 
rectly turn  in  the  moments  of  new  and  strange 
doubts  that  roll  over  us,  and  to  which  no  hu- 
man voice  can  command  peace. 


LECTUEE  VIII 

THE  SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL 

A  Revieio 

THE  social  character  of  Puritanism  needs 
hardly  any  demonstration.  A  theocracy  was  the 
Puritan  ideal.  Too  much  indeecPthe  Puritan 
was  apt  to  form  his  ideal  rather  from  the  pages 
of  the  preliminary  than  the  fuller  Revelation. 
Hence  the  thought  naturally  suggests  itself  to 
trace  in  the  evangelical  revival  of  Puritanism  a 
social  character.  At  first,  however,  one  is  con- 
scious of  a  sense  of  great  difference  between  the 
forms  of  Methodism  and  the  old  Puritan  party. 
These  recent  forms  have  neither  the  dignity  nor 
the  hardness  that  marked  Puritanism  even  in 
its  sweetest  moods.  There  is  also  a  total  ab- 
sence of  the  political  character  so  strongly  im- 
pressed on  Puritanism.  One  may  read,  as  we 
have  seen,  Wesley's  Journal  from  cover  to  cover, 
and  although  he  travelled  all  over  England, 
"Wales,  Ireland,  and  into  Scotland,  you  will 
search  in  vain  for  any  light  upon  political  occur- 
rences of  the  most  momentous  character,  and 
246 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     247 

yon  barely  find  even  mention  of  the  changes 
that  passed  over  England  between  1792  and 
1836.  Again  the  Puritan  movement  at  once 
busied  itself  with  renewed  researches  into  the 
theory  of  Church  and  state,  and  the  old  Puri- 
tan divines  built  in  great  measure  upon  their 
conception  in  regard  to  these  points  the  sys- 
tems of  theology  that  remain  as  their  monu- 
ments. Nothing  is  more  startling  than  to  see 
how  the  Evangelical  movement  started  entirely 
without  any  such  worked-out  theory  of  either 
Church  or  state.  Neither  the  Methodists  nor 
even  the  Calvinists  availed  themselves  of  past 
contributions  on  these  vital  topics.  The  Cal- 
vinism of  Geneva  can  only  be  comprehended 
after  one  has  grasped  the  conception  of  the 
state  as  Calvin  held  it,  or  indeed  as  it  was  gen- 
erally held  by  Calvinists  in  Europe.  But  the 
Calvinism  of  the  Evangelical  party  was  purely 
doctrinal,  and  seems  for  the  most  part  to  have 
had  its  origin  from  derived  sources.  As  for  the 
Methodist  movement,  it  was  avowedly  careless 
in  forming  any  opinion  on  these  subjects  at  all. 
Wesley  went  from  expedient  to  expedient  until 
he  found  himself  a  father  of  churches  he  had 
never  purposed  founding,  and  hardly  dared  to 
recognize. 

And  yet  this   movement    from    its   earliest 
stages  was  intensely  Puritan  and  social  in  its 


24:8     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

deeper  and  profounder  meaning.  The  discon- 
tent of  the  founders  of  this  new  religious  refor- 
mation was  not  with  the  political  organization 
of  the  day,  nor  yet  with  the  ecclesiastical  forms 
of  the  Church.  Law  was  a  High  Churchman 
who  could  not  brook  indeed  the  second  admin- 
istration of  oaths  that  seemed  to  set  aside  ones 
already  taken.  But  he  was  content  to  remain  a 
non- juror,  and  to  continue  in  fellowship  with  the 
national  Church.  It  was  the  unsocial  character 
of  religion,  the  utter  formality  of  its  profes- 
sions, the  failure  to  tell  on  every-day  life,  that 
awoke  the  Methodists  to  study  again  the  con- 
ditions of  salvation. 

And  if  any  proof  is  needed  of  the  profound 
significance  of  this  revolt,  one  need  only  ask 
what  permanent  things  has  it  left  as  a  heritage 
to  be  handed  down  as  precious  to  the  coming 
Church.  No  one  will  claim  as  the  permanent 
heritage  either  the  "  moonlight "  theology  of 
Law,  with  its  vague  and  half-mastered  mysti- 
cism ;  or  the  loose  Arminianism,  that  can  hardly 
even  be  classed  as  a  theological  system,  which 
Wesley  left  as  the  result  of  his  active  but  utter- 
ly untheological  thinking.  The  very  power  of 
his  system  is  that  it  is  not  theological,  but  prac- 
tical and  devotional  and  vitally  ethical.  His 
"General  Kules"  contain  not  one  single  dog- 
matic condition  of  communion.  And  to  this 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     249 

day  the  articles  he  drew  up  for  the  American 
Church  reflect  the  utterly  untheological  char- 
acter of  the  movement  by  the  omissions  of  all 
the  Calvinism  that  gave  the  Thirty-nine  Ar- 
ticles their  unity.  "They  are  a  liberal  and  ju- 
dicious abridgment  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
of  the  Church  of  England,  the  Calvinistic  and 
other  features  being  omitted."* 

Although  without  a  tenable  scientific  theory 
of  either  Church  or  state,  Wesley  knew  man  as  so- 
cial. "  God  made  us  for  a  social  life,"  he  writes 
to  his  father.  He  sprang  to  the  help  of  society 
by  an  attempt  to  reorganize  that  society  on  the 
basis  of  the  religious  experience  he  had  known 
as  real  in  himself.  And  the  things  which  last 
of  Methodism  are  the  missions  founded  for  the 
social  reorganization  of  the  world.  The  brother- 
hood of  man  is  the  foundation-stone  of  modern 
missions,  and  the  Indian  and  the  negro  became 
at  once  brothers  whom  Wesley  and  Whitefield 
started  out  to  save. 

What  gives  Methodism  its  chief  claim  to 
gratitude  from  the  brotherhood  of  Christian 
churches  is  the  organization  of  England's  mid- 
dle classes  for  the  hour  of  industrial  and  polit- 
ical strain,  when  the  danger  that  threatened  was 
complete  and  lasting  severance  of  the  bonds 
that  held  Europe's  foremost  Protestant  power 
*  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  Vol.  III.,  p.  807. 


250     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

together.  The  chapels  that  Methodism  strewed 
over  the  land  saved  Protestantism  in  the  hours 
of  Tory  reaction  and  of  Jacobin  excitement. 
They  were,  moreover,  as  we  pointed  out,  the 
training-schools  for  that  political  life  begin- 
ning for  the  working-men  of  England.  Of  the 
beliefs  distinctive  of  Methodism  many  have 
passed  into  deserved  oblivion.  The  physical 
manifestations  of  conversion  are  no  longer 
looked  for.  Witches  and  witchcraft  no  longer 
trouble  men.  The  very  phrases  of  the  move- 
ment have  acquired  a  broader  and  better  mean- 
ing. But  the  noble  appeal  to  love,  to  fellow- 
ship, and  to  purity  of  an  associated  life  has  been 
heard  far  past  the  chapel  walls.  "  It  cannot  be," 
writes  Wesley,  "that  they  should  long  obey 
God  from  fear,  who  are  deaf  to  the  motives  of 
love."  *  It  was  this  closely  associated  Chris- 
tian life  that  gave  Methodism  its  peculiar  char- 
acter and  power.  Men  were  banded  togeth- 
er in  pursuit  of  holiness.  It  marked  a  bet- 
ter form  of  the  social  religious  feeling  that 
banded  men  together  in  the  Middle  Ages  for 
holy  life  and  works  of  common  mercy. 

That  social  lacks   soon  became  apparent  to 
Wesley  we  have   also  seen.     To  him  we  may 
trace  the  beginnings  of  many  of  the  later  philan- 
thropic movements.      But  deeper    than    even 
*  Journal,  January,  1736. 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     251 

these  there  ran  the  longing  for  an  associated 
religious  life  that  would  sweep  all  England. 
To  Wesley  "The  Gospel,"  as  he  saw  more 
than  ever,  "  is  in  truth  but  one  great  promise, 
from  the  beginning  of  it  to  the  end."  *  He 
made  every  parish  his  own.  Nor  was  this 
the  spirit  of  Wesley  only.  The  movement, 
whether  in  Wales  or  under  Whitefield,  bore 
the  same  stamp.  The  universality  of  God's 
salvation  binding  men  together  for  a  com- 
mon purpose  of  salvation  gave  that  markedly 
aggressive  character  that  roused  such  bitter  op- 
position, and  led  to  so  much  persecution.  The 
Moravian  brethren  in  England  had  sunk  into 
an  anti-social  quietism,  and  nothing  marks  the 
instinctive  social  character  of  the  Methodist 
movement  more  than  the  way  it  flung  off  its 
early  associations  with  the  brethren  of  Herrnhut. 
In  the  disorganization  of  society  consequent 
upon  the  agricultural  revolution  that,  as  we  saw, 
marked  the  French  wars,  it  was  in  large  part 
Methodism  that  held  together  the  society  with 
which  the  parochial  system  was  no  longer  fit  to 
deal.  The  conservative  social  power  of  relig- 
ious organization  to  give  form  to  a  chaotic  dis- 
organized class  of  population  in  a  nation,  has 
never  received  a  more  striking  illustration. 
Just  as  the  Christian  Church  stood  ready  to 

*  Journal,  June,  173&. 


252     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

reorganize  and  preserve  the  elements  of  civiliza- 
tion scattered  in  the  downfall  of  paganism,  so 
now  in  the  shifting  of  the  population  from  field 
to  city  and  in  the  increase  by  decimals,  Metho- 
dism stood  ready  within  and  without  the  Estab- 
lishment to  reorganize  the  life  that  would 
otherwise,  as  in  France,  only  have  found  its 
place  amidst  bloodshed  and  the  horrors  of 
revolution.  Methodism  was  theologically  and 
intellectually  no  great  theoretic  gain  to  histori- 
cal Christianity ;  as  a  social  force  it  was  one  more 
revelation  of  God's  omnipotent  wisdom  and 
gracious  dealing  in  the  raising  up  of  communi- 
ties to  reveal  the  workings  of  His  ever-present 
order  of  righteousness.  Does  anyone  challenge 
Methodism  to  prove  its  apostolic  succession,  it 
is  not  to  doubtful  history  of  on-laid  hands  it 
need  go,  but  to  the  continual  and  present  evi- 
dence of  divine  life  breathed  into  whole  com- 
munities for  this  spiritual  uplifting,  their  social 
reorganization,  and  their  political  and  ecclesias- 
tical freedom. 

Both  types  of  theological  thought  were  repre- 
sented in  Methodism;  Arminianism,  or  the 
emphatic  dwelling  on  man's  responsibility  to 
God  for  his  acts,  and  the  Calvinistic,  or  the 
equally  emphatic  declaration  of  God's  absolute 
sovereignty.  Had  the  revival  merely  resulted 
in  the  formation  of  the  Methodist  churches  it 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     253 

would  still  have  been  a  most  noteworthy  provi- 
dence. At  the  same  time  we  should  have  been 
left  to  lament  still  further  divisions  of  Protest- 
antism as  its  chief  fruit.  There  was,  however, 
a  still  further  inspiration  in  it.  The  national 
Church  had  neglected  many  splendid  opportuni- 
ties ;  but  it  now  was  to  feel  the  blessing  it  had 
given  to  society.  It  is  noteworthy  that  it  was 
the  Calvinistic  type  of  thought  that  became 
dominant  in  the  Evangelical  movement,  as  a 
distinct  section  of  the  Church  of  England. 
This  was  in  part,  no  doubt,  due  to  the  decided 
character  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  But  not 
wholly  so.  The  national  idea  finds  in  the  Cal- 
vinistic statement  of  the  sovereignty  of  God 
congenial  soil.  The  social  impulse  received  a 
larger  and  more  universal  expression  when  thus 
in  alliance  with  the  national  spirit  and  definite 
doctrinal  emphasis  upon  the  absolute  reign  of 
law.  Hence  it  happens  that  as  we  trace  the 
effects  of  the  renewed  social  impulse  in  the  life 
of  the  Evangelical  party  we  find  it  entering  at 
once  upon  a  career  of  legal  reformation.  The 
theocratic  conception  of  Puritanism  made  the 
awakened  Christian  conscience  feel  the  national 
responsibility  as  well  as  the  individual  Chris- 
tian responsibility  for  national  sins.  The  slave- 
trade  became  a  burden  to  Christian  men  and 
women  who  had  no  other  connection  with  it 


254:     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

than  that  their  nation  suffered  it.  Prisons  and 
jails  became  individual  sorrows,  because  their 
condition  was  a  national  wrong.  Hence  the  note 
of  the  Evangelical  party  was  the  parliamentary 
activity,  and  the  abounding  philanthropic  re- 
forms in  which  the  party  was  engaged. 

The  accusation  that  Evangelical  theology  was 
both  hard  and  narrow  is  not  easily  met.  Nor 
was  it,  as  it  ought  to  have  been,  intellectually 
fruitful.  Had  its  Calvinism  been  drawn  from 
the  original  sources  we  might  have  confidently 
looked  for  great  intellectual  activity.  But  that 
was  not  the  case.  The  Calvinistic  reformers 
of  the  distinctly  second  period  of  the  Keforma- 
tion  gave  Evangelical  theology  its  color  and  its 
inspiration.  The  permanent  heritage  received 
from  Evangelicalism  is  not  theological  nor 
intellectual,  it  is  social  and  philanthropic.  It 
is  not  the  thinkers  of  the  party  that  have  given 
it  character,  but  the  workers  like  Howard,  Wil- 
berforce,  and  Lord  Shaftesbury.  Of  clear  and 
definite  statement  there  was  no  lack.  But 
phrases  and  not  ideas  became  the  intellectual 
capital.  There  was  actual  jealousy  of  any 
departure  from  party  watchwords,  actual  suspi- 
cion of  anyone  who  sought  to  go  down  more 
deeply  into  the  heart  of  things. 

The  relations  of  Christianity  to  the  state 
have  been  from  the  beginning  the  chief  prob- 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     255 

lems  of  religious  thought.  The  Messianic  king- 
dom so  clearly  foretold  in  the  pre-Christian 
prophecy  made  the  temptation  to  Christ  on  the 
Mount  to  bow  before  Borne,  and  seize  the  Em- 
pire for  his  holy  purpose,  only  resistable  by  the 
Messiah  Himself.  Christianity  can  afford  to 
make  no  concessions  for  the  sake  of  power. 
Her  power  is  spiritual  and  will  one  day  be  su- 
preme without  concessions.  Yet  the  desire  for 
supreme  place  is  both  legitimate  and  of  divine 
origin.  The  State  has  a  divine  mission  ;  in  its 
highest  development  it  will  be  coincident  with 
the  spiritual  ideals  of  Christ.  Csesar  and  Christ 
will  not  dispute  for  the  sway  of  the  world,  but 
the  world  will  recognize  the  spiritual  headship 
of  Christ  and  government  as  its  noblest  expres- 
sion. 

The  linking  of  evangelical  fervor,  therefore,  to 
the  law-making  of  England  was  a  distinct  social 
advance.  The  world  has  often  ruled  in  the 
name  of  religion.  Eeligion  ceases  to  be  religion 
when  it  tries  to  rule  in  the  name  of  the  world. 
But  when  Christianity  comes  to  full  self -con- 
sciousness, then  it  demands  of  the  nation  na- 
tional subjection  to  the  eternal  conceptions  of 
righteousness,  mercy,  and  brotherhood,  which 
Jesus  embodied  and  the  risen  Christ  calls  us 
to  incarnate  in  our  social  institutions.  The 
launching  of  the  great  social  reforms  with  which 


256     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

Evangelicalism  is  identified  lifted  up  the  whole 
national  life.  At  a  time  when  commercialism 
and  growing  town  populations  threatened  to 
swamp  the  moral  life  of  England,  the  energy 
and  sacrifice  of  the  Evangelical  party  carried 
the  commercial  classes  over  to  the  side  of  right- 
eousness, and  in  most  apparent  conflict  with 
their  own  interests  made  the  trading  classes 
the  stern  opponents  of  slavery  and  the  slave- 
trade.  Seldom  has  the  power  of  the  cross  as 
the  one  permanent  social  force  that  grows  with 
the  ages  been  better  demonstrated  than  in  that 
long  and  weary  struggle.  The  effect  of  this  ac- 
tivity was  felt  in  all  English  life.  The  outcome 
in  missionary  and  philanthropic  enterprises 
changed  the  character  of  even  the  mercantile 
energy  of  England.  In  God's  providence  the 
nation  that  commanded  the  seas  was  awakened 
to  her  national  responsibility  for  the  nations 
beyond  the  seas. 

The  strength  of  Evangelicalism  was  not, 
therefore,  her  clear  but  somewhat  scholastic 
and  unsatisfactory  doctrinal  definitions,  but  her 
ethical  enthusiasm  and  her  loyalty  to  the  social 
headship  of  the  risen  Christ.  She  boldly 
claimed  all  life  for  the  ideals  of  Christ  as  she 
understood  those  ideals.  That  her  understand- 
ing of  them  was  not  always  the  deepest  or  the 
truest  is  only  to  say  that  none  has  ever  sounded 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     257 

all  the  depth  that  lies  hidden  even  in  the  rev- 
elation of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  much  less  all 
the  mystery  that  is  still  to  be  revealed  as  His 
headship  becomes  more  and  more  acknowl- 
edged. 

The  intellectual  and  artistic  awakening  that 
followed  the  French  Revolution  and  the  French 
wars  could  not,  however,  be  content  with  the 
clear-cut  but  unhistoric  and  uncritical  formulae. 
Moreover  the  party  of  Evangelicalism  had  sur- 
rendered much  of  her  vitality  in  the  hours  of  her 
comparative  triumph.  Evangelicalism  was  fash- 
ionable and  yielded  too  readily  to  the  seduc- 
tions of  ease  and  popularity.  The  current  liter- 
ature of  the  beginning  of  this  century  shows, 
often  under  the  most  unfair  caricature,  what  the 
weakness  of  the  Evangelical  party  was.  Had 
the  religious  movement  now  lost  its  force,  Eng- 
land would  have  surrendered  herself  to  a  re- 
vived paganism  such  as  Byron  and  Shelley 
praised,  and  to  an  intensely  dogmatic  material- 
ism of  the  Bentham  type.  In  both  directions 
men  saw  hope  and  relief.  Byron  appealed  to  a 
gallantry  in  man,  and  to  a  noble  part  of  his  nat- 
ure hitherto  little  addressed.  Bentham  stirred 
men's  intellects  profoundly,  and  modified  by  his 
utilitarian  theories  the  course  of  legislation,  and 
not  unfavorably.  The  growing  prosperity  and 

increasing  contrasts  in  English  life  made  just 
17 


258     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

such  soil  as  furnished  rich  crops  of  revolution 
in  Europe.  Paganism  was  profoundly  attrac- 
tive to  men's  minds  grown  weary  with  the  iter- 
ation and  reiteration  of  religious  phrases  that 
had  lost  a  large  part  of  their  divine  vitality  and 
were  never,  as  intellectual  formulae,  profoundly 
respected. 

It  was  at  this  stage  that  the  religious  life  of 
England  awoke  to  new  thought  and  to  new  du- 
ties. Exegetical  and  historical  problems  had  to 
be  faced.  If  they  were  to  be  met  without  re- 
ligious injury  they  had  to  be  dealt  with  in  a  re- 
ligious spirit.  The  Evangelical  temper  was 
neither  sympathetic  enough  nor  analytical 
enough  to  undertake  this  task.  Moreover,  the 
social  problem,  as  such,  has  never  been  really 
faced.  Amelioration,  the  correction  of  obvious 
injustice,  had  indeed  been  bravely  undertaken. 
But  to  search  for  the  foundations  of  society 
amid  the  promptings  of  the  Christian  social 
consciousness  was  a  task  reserved  for  a  later 
day. 

This,  then,  was  the  chief  social  significance 
of  the  movement  loosely  called  the  Broad 
Church  movement.  What  William  Law  was  to 
the  Methodist  movement  Coleridge  was  to  this 
later  development.  The  scholarship  of  the 
movement  was  not  final.  No  scholarship  is 
final.  There  was  even  no  clear  intellectual 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     259 

agreement.  Arnold,  Whately,  Maurice,  Dean 
Stanley,  Carlyle,  Buskin,  all  represent  as  many 
distinct  types  as  there  are  men.  Nor  did  they 
possess  all  the  learning  and  scholarship  of  Eng- 
land. Pusey  was  foremost  as  a  student  of  Se- 
mitics,  and  Milman  was  one  of  England's  most 
learned  historians.  But  they  did  represent  a 
distinct  protest  against  the  separation  of  life 
into  religious  and  secular;  and  against  the 
shams  and  unrealities  that  paraded  themselves 
as  the  forces  of  national  existence.  They  re- 
stored again  a  lost  enthusiasm,  imparting  it 
even  to  such  opposite  schools  of  thought  as  the 
Evangelicals  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Unita- 
rians on  the  other.  They  bound  together  in  re- 
ligious sympathy  various  social  forces. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  this  was  the 
chief  social  significance  of  the  Broad  Church 
movement,  that  it  faced  sympathetically  the 
new  life  with  its  new  problems  and  dangers. 
The  Pharisee  in  Christ's  time  had  his  own 
remedy  for  the  ills  that  bore  heavily  on  men. 
All  had  only  to  become  as  he  was,  to  study  the 
law  and  fast  and  pray,  and  salvation  was  as- 
sured. But  men  felt  the  utter  unreality  of  this 
teaching.  They  saw  that  the  Pharisees  were 
not  so  very  different  from  themselves.  Men 
could  never  again  surrender  to  the  law  after 
having  tasted  of  a  larger  pagan  life.  Men  were 


260     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

done  with  the  school-master  and  discontented 
and  restless.  Then  it  was  that  Christ  intro- 
duced the  larger  life,  which  never  has  been 
since  quite  buried  out  of  sight  in  human  formu- 
lae. This  larger  life,  sympathy  and  hope  the 
Broad  school  men  revived.  Of  course,  it  was 
profoundly  misunderstood  even  by  its  own 
prophets ;  it  always  is.  Yet  it  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  new  social  advance.  It  made  possible 
the  safe  awakening  of  sleeping  forces  ;  it  awoke 
in  England  a  new  social  consciousness  inde- 
pendent of  its  own  formulae,  and  all  the  stronger 
for  doing  its  own  searching. 

Men  judge  of  Christ  as  they  see  Him  reflected 
in  His  followers.  Second-growth  Evangelical- 
ism, like  second -growth  Puritanism,  was  identi- 
fied in  men's  minds  with  narrow  sympathies 
and  hard,  shallow  views  of  life.  That  there  were 
noble  exceptions  did  not  alter  the  opinion  of 
good  men  who  judged  only  as  they  saw  Evan- 
gelicalism in  the  life  about  them.  The  antagon- 
ism of  the  world  Christians  may  always  expect. 
Sooner  or  later,  in  one  way  or  another,  the 
antithesis  is  sure  to  make  itself  felt.  Men, 
however  hungry  for  a  revelation  of  social 
order,  whose  hearts  are  longing  for  a  revelation 
of  God  in  the  life  they  know,  were  rightly  re- 
pelled by  the  want  of  faith  in  aught  but  the 
worn-out  phrases  of  a  school  that  showedall  the 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     261 

signs  of  a  spent  enthusiasm.  Such  men  also 
were  at  this  moment  greatly  increased  in  num- 
bers by  unwise  laws  and  the  hardships  of  war 
taxation.  They  had  been  schooled  in  the  busy 
life  of  the  city,  amidst  great  material  hardships, 
to  compare  Christian  professions  and  promises 
with  the  actual  condition  of  things.  In  thou- 
sands there  was  awakened  perhaps  a  mere  physi- 
cal animal  discontent,  but  in  many,  indeed  very 
many,  there  was  awakened  the  hungry  desire 
for  a  better,  less  selfish  social  order.  Then  it 
was  that  the  Broad  school  did  its  own  providen- 
tial work.  The  steadiness  and  sobriety  of  Eng- 
lish social  change  even  amid  antagonism,  both 
cruel  and  painful,  is  the  work  in  large  measure 
of  the  religious  awakening  and  the  wise  sym- 
pathy of  religious  leaders,  whom  the  ecclesias- 
tical world  regarded,  and  even  now  is  tempted 
to  regard,  as  beyond  the  pale  of  toleration  be- 
cause "  they  follow  not  with  us."  In  the  twi- 
light of  our  intellectual  life  shadows,  even  of  our 
brethren,  seem  to  us  dangerous  enemies  as  they 
struggle  with  us  toward  the  common  goal. 

The  religious  services  of  this  school  of  thought 
and  feeling  are  hard  to  estimate.  Socialism  is 
now  respectable.  It  is  dominant  in  many  of 
the  leading  universities  of  Europe,  and  has  an 
honored  place  at  least  as  a  subject  of  inquiry  in 
all.  But  in  the  days  of  1848  to  boldly  proclaim 


262     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

themselves  Christian  socialists,  as  did  Maurice, 
Ludlow,  and  Charles  Kingsley,  was  courting  the 
infamy  and  persecution  men  sought  to  heap 
upon  them.  In  informed  circles  it  is  no  longer 
fashionable  to  trust  to  right  legal  machinery  for 
curing  the  ills  of  the  world.  But  when,  after 
all  the  proud  reforms  of  England's  Parliament, 
Carlyle  deliberately  scoffed  at  the  materialism 
and  infidelity  that  lurked  in  this  mechanical 
theory,  and  called  men  back  to  face  vital  truth, 
he  was  deliberately  exposing  himself  in  the  age 
he  did  it  in  to  the  attacks  of  all  "  prudent "  and 
"  safe  "  persons.  Dean  Stanley's  reverent  in- 
terpretation of  the  scholarship  of  Germany  ex- 
posed him  to  the  attacks  of  those  whose  intel- 
lectual horizon  was  bounded  by  the  formulae 
they  had  learned  from  the  reforming  divines  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  This  sympathetic  atti- 
tude toward  the  modern  spirit  saved  England 
from  the  gravest  danger  that  confronted  her  in 
her  industrial  progress,  and  gave  the  whole  so- 
cial unrest  a  deeply  thoughtful  and  reverent 
character  unique  in  the  history  of  modern  social 
thought.  The  desire  of  men  of  real  intelligence 
writes  Arnold  in  1822,  was  "  a  uniformly  Chris- 
tian spirit,"  appearing  "  to  uphold  good  prin- 
ciples for  their  own  sake,  not  merely  as  tending 
to  the  maintenance  of  things  as  they  are."* 
*  Life  of  Arnold,  Vol.  I.,  p.  43. 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     263 

Of  the  positive  intellectual  contributions  of 
the  so-called  Broad  school  men  this  is  not  the 
place  to  speak.  They  vary  greatly  in  value. 
The  social  significance  was  the  Christian  sym- 
pathetic attitude  they  taught  to  stiff,  obstinate 
Englishmen  toward  the  new  questions  and  new 
thought  the  world  had  to  face.  This  temper 
has  in  large  measure  saved  England  from  the 
acute  phases  of  social  and  political  agitation 
which  have  plagued  the  Continental  nations, 
and  given  such  fine  excuses  for  reactionary 
appeal  to  force  and  tradition. 

The  movement  also  went  deeper  into  the 
social  question  than  did  the  party  of  Evangel- 
ical reform.  Before  every  society  there  are  two 
main  questions  seldom  properly  distinguished. 
The  first  is,  whether  the  existing  social  order  is 
being  abused.  Men  can,  under  cover  of  a  social 
order  against  which  there  exists  no  complaint, 
destroy  real  order  by  abusing  that  system.  A 
second  and  deeper  question  is,  whether  the 
existing  social  order  is  to  be  justified  before  the 
bar  of  conscience.  The  French  Revolution  con- 
vinced most  Englishmen  that  they  did  not  want 
to  destroy  their  existing  social  order.  And  that 
opinion  prevails  generally  to-day.  The  Evangel- 
ical party  had  bravely  attacked  abuses  that  had 
grown  up  upon  the  social  order  and  were  con- 
tent, for  the  most  part,  to  have  these  remedied. 


264     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

The  social  thought  of  the  Broad  school  men,  as 
well  as  such  thinkers  as  Carlyle  and  Euskin,  did 
not,  indeed,  have  any  quarrel  with  the  forms  of 
the  social  order.  But  they  were  among  the 
first  to  boldly  attack  the  spirit  of  that  order, 
and  to  cry  out  for  a  complete  reformation  in 
the  underlying  conception  that  selfishness  and 
brute  force  were  the  twin  pillars  of  society. 
This  theory  had  indeed  been  more  or  less 
openly  avowed  by  a  school  of  thought  popular 
in  England,  by  reason  of  its  great  simplicity 
and  the  clearness  and  energy  of  those  who 
advanced  it.  Men  did  not  even  recognize  its 
essentially  irreligious  character.  The  theory  of 
the  greatest  happiness  to  the  greatest  number, 
by  which  Bentham  veiled  an  exceedingly  mate- 
rialistic philosophy  of  society,  even  attracted 
the  younger  religious  men.  The  social  protest 
of  the  men  that  followed  Maurice,  Carlyle,  or 
Euskin  is  against  the  spirit  that  would  thus 
reduce  to  selfishness,  instead  of  social  affection, 
the  laws  of  life.  The  religious  world  in  all  its 
phases  has  begun  to  grasp  that  essential  differ- 
ence, and  to  realize  that  the  spirit  at  the  basis 
of  social  order  is  the  important  thing,  and  to 
fear  but  little  changes  that  have  right  motives 
as  their  inspiration,  knowing  that  even  se- 
rious mistakes  in  the  effort  to  bring  about 
order  are  not  so  dangerous  as  the  selfish  con- 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     265 

tinuance  in  abuses  for  fear  of  possible  injury 
by  change. 

It  was  characteristic  of  the  entire  religious 
movement  to  throw  its  energies  upon  education. 
John  Wesley  had  founded  a  school  after  his 
own  plan  and  ideal.  Sunday-schools  were  the 
direct  outcome  of  the  movement,  and  Hannah 
More  did  inestimable  service  to  the  much- 
neglected  female  education  in  England  by  both 
her  methods  and  her  writing.  Indeed  the  close 
connection  between  the  religious  revival  and 
education  is  not  the  least  element  in  its  social 
significance.  It  sprang  from  the  university  life 
and  kept  in  touch  with  the  universities  through- 
out its  course.  Its  principal  strength  was  the 
hold  it  gained  over  the  men  who  were  leading 
England's  public  life.  Yet  at  the  same  time 
there  can  be  no  question  that  the  education  was 
insular  and  traditional.  The  excessive  conserv- 
atism of  Oxford  makes  us  wonder  at  the  splen- 
did things  she  accomplished,  in  spite  of  her 
attachment  to  past  ideals,  and  her  insistence 
upon  traditions  that  had  long  lost  their  hold 
elsewhere. 

To  the  work  of  Coleridge,  Arnold,  and  Carlyle, 
England  owes  her  connection  in  large  part  with 
a  wider  world  of  thought  and  learning  and 
education  in  Germany,  the  social  meaning  of 
which  is  best  seen  in  the  historic  and  critical 


266     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

schools  to  which  this  contact  gave  birth.  To 
Oxford  there  came  fresh  impulses  and  to  Eng- 
land new  problems  in  the  opening  up  again  of 
the  questions  that  Kant  and  Hegel  had  laid 
before  the  world.  The  work  of  Emanuel  Kant, 
the  great  modern  Protestant,  appears  in  a  hun- 
dred ways  in  the  thought  of  England  from  this 
time  onward. 

Great  freedom  in  speculation  and  in  handling 
critical  and  historical  questions  was  one  of  the 
results,  not  so  much  of  the  religious  movement 
as  of  advanced  liberalism  and  the  influence  of 
the  French  encyclopaedists.  Strong  reaction 
from  this  might  have  easily  closed  the  ears  of 
the  leaders  of  thought  in  England  to  all  ad- 
vanced inquiry,  and  produced  the  conditions 
found  too  often  in  Italy  and  Spain,  where  intel- 
lectual freedom  is  synonymous  with  infidelity. 
The  Broad  Churchmen  met  this  freedom,  not  by 
rejecting  it,  but  by  reverently  entering  into  it, 
and  by  demanding  for  education  a  like  bold 
facing  of  the  issues  raised.  The  school  had 
confidence  in  the  classes  of  England,  in  the 
wealthy  and  in  the  working-men,  and  was  not 
afraid  to  give  its  best  to  the  working-men  in 
Great  Ormond  Street  or  to  appeal  to  the  best 
instincts  in  men  of  all  classes.  The  outcome  of 
this  confidence  as  seen  in  social  settlements,  in 
summer  schools,  in  the  determined  spirit  on  the 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     267 

part  of  so  many  of  all  denominations  and  shades 
of  thought  in  so  many  lands  to  probe  to  the  bot- 
tom of  social  problems,  and  give  all  fair  answers 
a  hearing,  lies  beyond  the  scope  of  our  present 
inquiry.  Yet  it  is  only  just  to  point  out  the 
source  of  this  growing  confidence  and  to  mark 
it  as  a  direct  fruit  of  the  religious  awakening 
in  England. 

Whatever  fate  may  befall  the  theological  re- 
sults of  the  Broad  school ;  and  it  is  impossible 
to  claim  that  they  rendered  any  phenomenal 
service  along  this  line  ;  whatever  may  be  the 
final  verdict  upon  the  historical  and  critical 
positions  they  severally  maintained ;  and  that 
these  positions  are  always  subject  to  review 
cannot  be  denied ;  yet,  as  a  permanent  ser- 
vice to  all  thought,  religious  and  social,  will 
remain  the  spirit  of  reverent  freedom  and 
Christian  confidence  in  God  and  man  devel- 
oped and  defended  by  the  Broad  Church  party 
and  the  allied  social  thought  of  Carlyle  and 
Buskin. 

In  the  tremendous  strides  toward  a  democratic 
form  of  government  made  in  England  since 
1688 — made  without  a  serious  physical  conflict, 
and  if  engendering  heat  and  excitement  at  the 
time,  yet  commanding  in  the  end  the  practical 
assent  of  all  classes — it  is  often  forgotten  how 
deeply  the  old  Tory  conception  of  life  is  rooted 


268     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

in  English  thinking.      The  enthusiastic  icon- 
oclast might  claim  that 

"  Shakespeare  was  of  us,  Milton  was  for  us, 
Burns,  Shelley  were  with  us,  they  watch  from  their 
graves." 

But  English  literature  is  also  deeply  dyed  in 
the  feudal  and  Tory  life  coloring.  It  is  abso- 
lutely impossible  to  cultivate  artistic  apprecia- 
tion of  the  past  and  its  achievements  without 
some  entering  into  sympathy  with  the  thought 
and  feelings  of  the  past  that  thus  found  utterance. 
For  Evangelicalism,  with  all  its  splendid  virtues, 
the  past  was  largely  bounded  by  the  traditions 
of  the  reformation  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  its  sympathies  were  scarcely  broad  enough 
to  enter  largely  into  past  states  of  feeling,  how- 
ever deeply  these  might  once  have  touched  Eng- 
land. Popery  was  to  Evangelicalism  an  impos- 
sible standing  point,  and  High  Churchism  a 
past  memory  of  a  fitful  dream.  Yet  it  sprang, 
itself,  immediately  from  a  circle  of  ideas,  as  we 
have  seen,  harbored  within  the  prayer-books 
and  offices  it  had  never  ceased  to  use,  and  never 
expressed  any  desire  to  change.  It  was  inevi- 
table, therefore,  that  the  High  Church  movement 
which  we  have  briefly  studied  should  spring  up 
and  protest  again  on  behalf  of  a  social  and  re- 
ligious conception  never  in  any  way  eliminated 
from  the  English  Church. 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     269 

The  Non-jurors  had  never  left  the  Church. 
Their  protest,  indeed,  was  for  long  utterly  un- 
heeded. The  recrudescence  of  the  same  social 
conceptions  they  cherished  links  the  High 
Church  party  as  a  social  factor  with  the  Oxford 
Methodists,  who  started,  as  did  Pusey  and  his 
friends,  to  simply  live  up  to  the  rubrics  and 
that  which  they  stood  for  in  the  Establishment. 
These  men  stood  not  for  a  different  theology. 
With  all  respect  for  the  intellectual  services  of 
Pusey  and  Newman  and  their  several  parties 
it  cannot  be  urged  that  they  advanced  in  any 
great  degree  scientific  theology.  Their  real 
social  service  was  renewed  attention  to  the 
ancient,  traditional,  authoritative  attitude  of 
Christianity  to  human  life.  However,  as  Prot- 
estants, we  may  reject  earnestly  the  sacramental 
theories  and  the  external  authority  of  the  Catho- 
lic conception  of  the  relation  of  the  Church  to 
the  state,  we  need,  because  we  are  Protestants, 
to  emphasize  as  never  before  the  function  of  the 
Church  as  the  spiritual  authority  in  the  life  of 
the  state.  The  High  Church  party  claimed  for 
a  mere  fragment  of  Christendom  what  belongs 
to  all ;  but  it  rightly  claimed  a  spiritual  super- 
vision of  life.  A  nation  is  not  Christian  because 
it  believes  in  a  certain  set  of  theological  articles, 
or  imposes  them  upon  its  rulers  and  universities, 
as  the  High  Church  party  fondly  claimed.  Nor 


270     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

is  the  standing  of  a  nation  as  Christian  de- 
pendent upon  the  churchly  maintenance  of 
some  mystic  connection  between  the  hands  of 
past  bishops,  however  worthy,  and  the  heads 
of  present  and  future  bishops,  priests,  and  dea- 
cons, however  consecrated;  but  upon  the  in- 
spiring motives  of  the  nation  in  its  internal  and 
external  relations. 

We  are  not  farther  off  to-day  from  the  source 
of  all  religious  inspiration  and  guidance  than 
were  the  most  apostolic  fathers,  but  England 
needed  to  be  again  aroused  to  the  national  re- 
sponsibility of  the  Church  to  human  life  as  an 
authoritative  guide  in  its  spiritual  concerns. 
The  national  Church  stands  established  as  the 
representative  of  the  Church  to  and  in  the  state. 
Ward,  in  his  Ideal  Church,  expresses  the  feeling 
that  was  revived  in  the  High  Church  party  that, 
"  She  [the  Ideal  Church]  will  feel  it  her  duty  to 
proclaim  aloud  the  general  application  of  Chris- 
tian principles  to  political  government ;  and 
plain  and  undeniable  sins,  such  as  flagrant 
unjust  war,  or  a  measure  conspicuously  op- 
pressive to  the  poor,  she  will  fearlessly  de- 
nounce. .  .  .  The  office  of  protecting  the 
poor  against  wrong  is  especially  her  own ;  nor 
will  she  consider  any  one  of  her  attributes  more 
noble,  obvious  or  inalienable."  * 
*  P.  49. 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     271 

The  Church  needs  to  commend  herself  to 
every  man's  conscience  ;  her  value  as  a  guide  in 
things  spiritual  depends  on  her  success  in  thus 
commending  herself.  The  social  meaning  of  the 
churchly  party's  rise  was  to  be  found  in  the 
sense  that  the  Establishment  was  not  fulfilling 
her  high  aim,  and  that  the  High  Churchmen 
did  lift  up  with  real  enthusiasm  a  loftier  ideal 
of  churchly  zeal.  The  fact  that  the  leaders 
seceded  to  Rome  is  proof  conclusive  that  they 
neither  did  nor  desired  to  introduce  any  advance 
in  the  thinking  of  the  church,  nor  did  they  add 
any  great  amount  to  the  sum  of  critical  or  his- 
torical knowledge,  although  they  possessed 
respectable  scholarship  along  both  these  lines 
Their  real  service  was  again  social,  in  the  reor- 
ganization of  church  life  as  a  great  factor  in  the 
social  development  of  the  English  people ;  and 
however  much  Protestants  may  be  inclined  to 
pity  the  extravagances  and  even  superstition 
into  which  the  party  has  in  large  measure  been 
led,  yet  candid  examination  has  certainly  con- 
vinced many  even  prejudiced  observers  of  the 
decided  advance  made  by  the  Church  in  practi- 
cal piety  under  the  High  Church  influence. 

Ono  notable  feature  of  the  movement  marks 
its  common  origin  with  the  Methodism  of  the 
last  century,  and  links  it  with  the  circle  of  ideas 
out  of  which  Methodism  sprang.  This  feature 


272     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

is  the  emphasis  upon  the  duty  of  the  Church  as 
such  to  prescribe  the  rules  whereby  the  individ- 
ual may  attain  various  degrees  of  sanctification. 
"  A  function,"  writes  Ward,*  "  of  the  Church, 
even  more  important  than  any  we  have  yet 
named,  is  what  may  be  briefly  described  as  the 
training  up  of  saints ;  the  sedulously  tending  of 
those  who,  whether  in  reward  for  a  consistently 
holy  walk  in  time  past,  or  by  the  fore -working 
of  God's  grace,  have  aspirations  within  them 
that  tend  to  a  high  and  noble  strictness  of  life, 
and  who  thirst  for  a  far  more  entire  self- 
abnegation  and  devotion  to  God's  will  than  that 
for  which  the  ordinary  walks  of  life  afford  suffi- 
cient scope."  Thus  Methodism  started,  but 
found  in  the  practical  contact  with  life  what 
the  High  Church  movement  has  not  found — a 
corrective  for  this  introduction  of  a  caste  system 
into  Christianity.  The  Methodists  soon  de- 
manded from  all  men  the  highest  that  they 
knew  for  themselves,  and  they  soon  realized 
what  William  Law  did  not  realize,  that  there 
was  no  safe  compromise  with  men.  Either 
entire  subjection  or  rebellion  is  the  moral  alter- 
native before  every  responsible  man.  The  High 
Church  leaders  were  men  of  far  more  intellect- 
ual acumen  than  most  of  those  who  took  lead- 
ing parts  in  the  Methodist  movement,  although 

*  Ideal  Church,  p.  16. 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     273 

probably  no  one  of  them  had  the  genius  and 
power  of  John  Wesley ;  but  they  moved  in  the 
scholasticism  in  which  Methodism  began,  and 
the  social  significance  of  the  movement  has  been 
limited  by  the  distinctly  reactionary  intellectual 
platform  from  which  they  did  their  teaching. 
But  they,  too,  have  flung  themselves  on  the  prob- 
lems of  the  social  order.  Instinctively  they 
proclaimed  as  the  real  "  note "  of  the  true 
Church  its  capacity  to  solve  these  problems. 
Indeed  Ward — in  many  ways  the  thinker  of  the 
party  even  more  than  Newman — says:  "The 
saints  are  in  every  age  the  great  external  wit- 
nesses of  Christianity,  the  great  visible  notes  of 
the  Church."  * 

Thus  we  have  sought  to  trace  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Methodist  Oxford  movement  the 
religious  awakening  that  passed  over  England 
in  four  distinct  phases  with  separate  character- 
istics. We  have  seen  how  different  and  even 
exclusive  the  theological  and  ritual  life  of  each 
phase  was.  We  have  noted  the  concomitant 
interest  in  the  national  life  and  marked  the 
social  significance  of  the  awakening.  The 
essence  of  the  movement  cannot  be  sought  in 
the  opinions  advocated  by  any  one  phase,  for  in 
spite  of  defects  in  all,  the  common  religious 
origin  and  abounding  usefulness  of  all  can 

*  Ideal  Church,  p.  558. 
18 


274-     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

hardly  be  soberly  denied,  and  yet  these  opin- 
ions separated  and  did  not  unite  the  various 
phases.  Nor  can  any  form  of  church  govern- 
ment be  urged  a  return  to  which  might  secure 
the  results  of  this  movement,  for  it  advanced 
under  all  forms  and  theories  of  church  govern- 
ment. 

The  strength  of  the  movement  was  not  Cal- 
vinism nor  yet  Arminianism ;  it  was  not  inde- 
pendence nor  traditionalism ;  it  was  not  infor- 
mality in  worship  nor  yet  ritual ;  it  was  not 
the  zeal  of  an  untrained  ministry  nor  the  wide 
and  varied  culture  of  thorough  scholastic  learn- 
ing ;  it  was  not  the  keeping  close  to  certain 
statements  of  truth — because  no  party  ever  suc- 
ceeded on  agreeing  to  any  great  extent  upon 
the  statements  it  should  keep  close  to.  The 
open  Bible  cannot  be  given  as  the  secret  of  the 
Anglican  success,  nor  can  the  critical  examina- 
tion of  it  be  urged  as  the  strength  of  Evangeli- 
calism. Nor  can  we  assert  that  the  particular 
ability  of  special  men  accounts  for  the  religious 
activity  that  stretched  over  one  hundred  years 
and  called  into  leadership  men  as  widely  differ- 
ent as  Whitefield,  Coke,  Wesley,  Wilberforce, 
Scott,  Arnold,  Maurice,  Newman  and  Ward. 
The  personal  religious  depth  of  none  of  these 
men  is  open  to  serious  dispute.  Probably  no 
one  will  accept  more  than  one  as  in  any  way 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     275 

representing  fully  his  particular  caste  of  relig- 
ious philosophy.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
religious  services  of  these  men  is  not  denied. 
The  whole  church  joins  with  Newman  singing, 
"  Lead,  Kindly  Light,  amid  the  Encircling 
Gloom ; "  feeds  its  devotion  on  Keble's  Chris- 
tian Year  ;  joins  with  Charles  Wesley  and  John 
Bo  wring  in  praising  the  cross ;  learns  from  the 
pages  of  Scott  the  mind's  spiritual  meaning  of 
the  sacred  text,  and  glories  in  the  philanthropy 
and  achievements  of  all.  They  form  a  cloud  of 
witnesses  now  that  they  are  dead,  whom  we 
should  have  had  reduced  by  two -thirds,  were 
they  living,  because  their  opinions  did  not  coin- 
cide with  ours. 

The  religious  movement  was  not  based  upon, 
an  opinion,  nor  was  it  the  outcome  of  dogmatic 
prepossessions.  Opinions  sprang  from  it,  and  it 
gave  rise  to  theories  and  dogmas,  because  it  was 
a  revival  of  religion,  a  revivification  of  the  old  ele- 
ments, transforming  them  and  making  them  new. 

That  which  was  common  to  all  was  an  ideal 
of  salvation  for  men  and  for  society.  "Wesley 
says :  "  Now  that  life  tends  most  to  the  glory  of 
God  wherein  we  most  promote  holiness  in  our- 
selves and  others ;  I  say  ourselves  and  others 
as  being  fully  persuaded  that  these  can  never 
be  put  asunder."  *  Personal  and  social  holiness 
*  Journal,  p.  122  (letter  to  his  father). 


276     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

was  the  end  for  which  W ilberf orce  and  Clarksom 
moved  heaven  and  earth  to  abolish  slavery  as  a 
personal  stain  and  a  social  blot.  Personal  holi- 
ness was  Arnold's  constant  sermon  to  the  boys  at 
Eugby,  banishing  vice  and  deception  from  hun- 
dreds of  young  hearts  to  go  out  to  service  of 
the  kind  Thomas  Hughes  rendered  so  conspicu- 
ously. Personal  holiness  was  the  one  aim  of 
John  H.  Newman  going  out  from  friends  and 
comrades  to  the  long  and  sad  search  after  truth 
told  in  the  tender  pages  of  the  Apologia  and 
finding  peace  only  when  he  had  accepted  a  set 
of  opinions  it  is  safe  to  say  the  robust  common- 
sense  of  Anglo-Saxons  will  never  receive  in 
their  present  entirety. 

In  all  we  recognize  the  divine  life,  struggling 
through  the  mass  of  confused  prejudices,  social, 
scholastic,  literary,  class,  personal,  racial,  and 
traditional,  purifying  in  many  cases,  nearly 
always  lifting  the  man  far  above  his  opinions  in 
special  times  of  exaltation.  In  all  faith  in  God 
and  submission  to  His  holy  will  form  the 
underlying  principles  of  action.  In  all  now 
plainly  temporary  and  accidental  elements  were 
exalted  into  essential  principles.  Wesley 
thought  unbelief  in  witchcraft  the  first  step 
toward  denial  of  all  supernatural  elements  in 
religion.  Thomas  Scott  thought  the  mainten- 
ancy  of  the  six-day  cosmogony  essential  to  the 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     277 

holding  of  any  faith  in  the  religious  value  of  the 
Bible.  Arnold  considered  the  admission  of 
Jews  to  the  House  of  Commons  a  serious  shak- 
ing of  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  nation's 
claim  to  be  Christian.  *  Newman  awoke  once 
horror-stricken  to  ask  himself  if  he  was  not  in 
the  same  condemnations  with  the  monophy sites. 
All  the  different  representatives  of  the  different 
phases  were  schismatic  in  that  they  made  per- 
sonal opinions  the  basis  of  fellowship  with  those 
no  seriously  minded  man  would  now  regard  as 
among  the  lost.  To  Charles  Kingsley,  Newman 
was  an  underhand  lying  Jesuit.  To  Newman, 
Hampden  was  guilty  of  mortal  sin  in  propound- 
ing views  now  tolerated  even  in  Eoman  circles. 
All  of  them  in  their  several  degrees  advanced, 
even  amid  blunders  and  errors,  the  cause  of  real 
and  essential  righteousness. 

The  centre  of  unity  is  to  be  found  in  the  pray- 
ers they  offered  up  and  the  hymns  they  sang, 
rather  than  in  the  opinions  they  made  their 
own.  They  found  a  common  significance  in  the 
social  activity  that  absorbed  a  far  larger  propor- 
tion of  their  thought  and  time  than  the  controv- 
ersies of  which  the  world  now  reads  for  the 
most  part,  and  which  give  parties  their  distinc- 
tive names.  All  the  phases  of  these  controver- 
sies had  for  the  participants  an  importance  they 
*  Life,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  28,  29. 


278     ENGLISH  RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS 

do  not  possess  for  us.  We  do  not  go  to  Wes- 
ley's sermon  on  predestination,  nor  to  White- 
field's  reply  in  order  to  inform  ourselves  con- 
cerning the  philosophical  or  theological  value  of 
Arminianism  or  Calvinism.  However  much  we 
may  recognize  the  philosophic  value  of  one  or 
other  line  of  thought  the  fact  of  Methodism 
stamps  so-called  Arminianism  as  neither  a 
deadly  heresy  nor  a  dangerous  disadvantage  to 
Evangelical  truth.  It  does  not  settle  the  intel- 
lectual value  of  Arminianism,  but  it  does  surely 
demonstrate  the  folly  of  supposing  that  Calvin- 
ism is  the  only  foundation  on  which  Evangelical 
truth  can  rest. 

The  power  of  the  Evangelical  Eevival  is  not 
yet  exhausted,  although  its  forms  are  varied  and 
its  manifestations  are  more  general.  Protest- 
antism has  been  lately  aroused  by  the  activity 
and  zeal  of  those  to  whom  the  Eoman  Church 
undoubtedly  appeals  more  strongly  than  does 
the  Church  of  the  Eeformation,  and  who  desire 
to  restore  the  English  Church  to  her  former 
state.  Conflicting  conceptions  of  the  character 
of  both  Church  and  State  will  thus  sooner  or 
later  be  brought  into  final  struggle  for  the  mas- 
tery of  the  Establishment.  The  Salvation  Army 
still  maintains  much  of  the  method  and  spirit 
that  distinguished  the  early  Methodist  move- 
ment, with  its  class  discipline  and  minute  regu- 


SOCIAL  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  GENERAL     279 

lation  of  the  daily  life  ;  both  the  High  Church- 
man and  the  Salvation  Army  leader  deem 
the  personal  and  authoritative  watch  by  the 
churchly  organization  over  the  particulars  of 
the  individual  life  essential  to  the  higher  sancti- 
fication  at  which  both  aim.  Both  more  or  less 
avowedly  profess  degrees  of  sanctity,  and  aim 
at  a  centralized  and  effective  central  power  to 
enforce  unity. 

On  the  other  hand  the  freer  and  more  Prot- 
estant movement  is  finding  expression  in  the 
banding  together  of  the  bodies  of  non-con- 
formity on  the  basis  of  skilful  evasion  of  their 
intellectual  differences.  But  to  all  alike  the 
one  hope  that  animates  and  inspires  is  the 
same  apocalyptic  vision  that  inspired  the  Pres- 
byter John  on  the  Isle  of  Patmos,  when  amid 
discouragements  and  trials,  and  the  unbelief 
and  persecution  of  men,  he  saw  a  new  Heaven 
and  a  new  Earth,  wherein  dwelt  righteousness, 
and  the  four  and  twenty  elders  flung  their 
crowns  at  the  feet  of  the  risen  Saviour  and 
exclaimed : 

Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to  receive  glory  and 
honor  and  power :  for  Thou  hast  created  all 
things,  and  for  thy  pleasure  they  are  and  were 
created !  Eev.  iv.  11. 


BIBLIOGBAPHY 

No  complete  bibliography  is  possible.  In- 
formation has  been  gleaned  from  very  various 
and  different  sources.  But  the  following  works 
have  proved  especially  useful. 

A  Short  History  of  the  English  People  :  T.  R. 
Green,  M.  A.  Illustrated  Edition,  New  York,  1893,  4 
vols. 

A  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  : 
W.  E.  H.  Lecky.  New  York,  1888,  8  vols. 

The  Nineteenth  Century  :  Robert  MacKenzie.  New 
York,  1880,  1  vol. 

History  of  Our  Own  Times  :  Bishop  Burnet.  Fo- 
lio Edition,  London,  1734. 

Social  England  :  Edited  by  H.  D.  Trail.  London, 
1894. 

Pioneers  and  Progress  of  English  Farming  :  R. 
Prothero. 

History  of  the  Non-jurors  :  Thomas  Lathbury. 
London,  1845. 

History  of  the  Convocation  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land :  Thomas  Lathbury.  London,  1842. 

The  "Reports  "  and  "  Tours  "  of  Arthur  Young. 

The  Tour  of  Defoe.     London,  1727. 

The  Tour  of  Defoe  :  Edited  by  Richardson.  Lon- 
don, 1748. 

History  of  the  Puritans.  (Abridged.)  Neal.  Lon- 
don Edition,  1811. 

281 


282  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  Puritans  and  Queen  Elizabeth  :  Samuel  Hop- 
kins. New  York,  1875,  3  vols. 

Defoa's  Works  (Walter  Scott's  Notes).  Bohn  Edi- 
tion, 1854,  7  vols. 

William  Law's  Works,  especially  A  Serious  Call  to 
a  Devout  and  Holy  Life,  London,  1816  ;  and  Letters 
to  Dr.  Hoadley,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  Philadelphia, 
1830. 

Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  II.  :  Lord  John 
Henry.  Philadelphia,  1848,  2  vols. 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  Reports  from  1780. 

MacPherson's  Annals  of  Commerce. 

Hannah  More's  Works.     New  York,  1835,  7  vols. 

Memoirs  of  the  Last  Ten  Years  of  George  II.'s 
Reign  :  Horace  Walpole.  London,  1822. 

The  Enthusiasm  of  Methodists  and  Papists  Com- 
pared :  Bishop  Lavington.  London,  1849-51,  2  vols. 

Sydney  Smith's  Works.     London,  1839,  4  vols. 

The  Centenary  of  Methodism.     Dublin,  1839. 

John  Wesley's  Works.     New  York,  1826,  10  vols. 

John  Wesley's  Journal  (better  edition).  New  York, 
1837,  2  vols. 

Life  of  John  Wesley  (most  excellent) .  Tyerman. 
New  York,  1872,  3  vols. 

The  Oxford  Methodist :  Tyerman.   New  York,  1873. 

The  Life  of  George  Whitefield  :  Tyerman.  New 
York,  1877,  2  vols. 

History  of  Free  Churches  of  England,  A.D.  1688  to 
1851  :  H.  S.  Skeat.  London,  1869. 

Life  of  William  Wilberforce,  by  his  Sons.  London, 
1838. 

Life  of  Samuel  Wilberforce,  by  his  Son.  New  York, 
1889. 

Romelly's  Reports,  particularly  Cold  Bath  Prison 
Report,  1800. 

Howard  the  Philanthropist  :  J.  Stoughton.  Lon- 
don, 1884. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  283 

Religion  in  England  under  Queen  Anne  and  the 
Four  Georges.  London,  1878,  2  vols. 

Robert  Owen's  Life  and  Works.     ,  . 

Gleanings  of  Past  Years  :  William  E.  Gladstone. 
New  York,  1886,  7  vols. 

The  Oxford  Movement  :  Dean  Church.  London, 
1892. 

Catholicism,  Romanism,  and  Anglicanism  :  Princi- 
pal Fairbairn.  London,  1898. 

John  Henry  Newman's  Works,  particularly  Apo- 
logia pro  Vita  Sua.  London,  1870. 

Newman's  Life  and  Correspondence.     1890,  2  vols. 

The  Ideal  Church  :  William  G.  Ward.  Lon- 
don, 1884. 

William  G.  Ward  and  the  Oxford  Movement.  Sec- 
ond Edition,  London,  1890. 

Life  of  Cardinal  Manning  :  Purcell.  London,  1896, 
2  vols. 

Life  and  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Arnold  :  Dean 
Stanley.  London,  1887,  2  vols. 

Tracts  for  the  Times,  particularly  No.  90.  (Vari- 
ous Editions.) 

Life  and  Letters  of  Dean  Stanley.  London,  1894, 
2  vols. 

Life  and  Verses  of  Dean  Stanley.     1895. 

Life  of  F.  D.  Maurice  in  his  Letters.  Third  Edi- 
tion, New  York,  2  vols. 

Ruskin's  Works,  George  Allen's  Edition,  Sunny- 
side,  1888. 

Carlyle's  Works,  Ashburton  Edition,  1889,  17  vols. 

Charles  Kingsley's  Essays.    London,  1880. 

Letters  and  Life  of  Charles  Kingsley.  New  York, 
1888. 

Life  and  Correspondence  of  Whately.   Dublin,  1868. 

Essays,  Reviews,  and  Addresses  of  James  Martineau. 
London,  1891,  3  vols. 


flDorse  Xectures  for  1898 
THE    CHRISTIAN    CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

STUDIES  AND  PERSONAL  OBSERVATIONS  OF  ORIENTAL 
RELIGIONS 

BY  JOHN   HENRY   BARROWS,  D.D. 
12mo,  $1 .50 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS,   PUBLISHERS 

CONTENTS  : — I.  Beginning  at  Jerusalem  ;  or  Christianity  and  Juda- 
ism.— II.  The  Cross  and  the  Crescent  in  Asia. — III.  Observations  of 
Popular  Hinduism. — IV.  Philosophic  Hinduism. — V.  Some  Difficulties 
in  the  Hindu  Mind  in  Regard  to  Christianity. — VI.  Christianity  and 
Buddhism. — VII.  Confucianism,  and  the  Awakening  of  China. — VIII. 
Success  of  Asiatic  Missions  :  America's  Responsibility"  to  the  Orient. 

Dr.  Barrows's  book  gives  an  account  of  the  results  achieved  by  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  Asia  during  this  century.  The  exact 
religious  condition  of  the  Asia  of  to-day  is 'clearly  detailed  ;  and  a  hope- 
ful forecast  is  given  with  regard  to  the  continuance  of  the  work  already 
auspiciously  begun  in  the  Far  East. 


/iDorse  ^Lectures  for  1895 

THE  WHENCE  AND  THE  WHITHER  OF 

MAN 

A  BRIEF  HISTORY  OF  HIS   ORIGIN  AND   DEVELOPMENT, 
THROUGH  CONFORMITY  TO  ENVIRONMENT 

BY  JOHN  M.   TYLER 

Professor  of  Biology,  Amherst  College 
12mo,  312  pp.,  $1.75 

CONTENTS  : — Introduction. — I.  The  Problem  :  The  Mode  of  its  Solu- 
tion.— II.  Protozoa  to  Worms :  Cells,  Tissues,  and  Organs. — III.  Worms 
to  Vertebrates :  Skeleton  and  Head. — IV.  Vertebrates:  Backbone  and 
Brain. — V.  The  History  of  Mental  Development  and  its  Sequence  of 
Functions. — VI.  Natural  Selection  and  Environment. — VII.  Conformity 
to  Environment.— VIII.  Man.— IX.  The  Teachings  of  the  Bible.— X. 
Present  Aspect  of  the  Theory  of  Evolution. — Chart  showing  Sequence 
of  Attainments  and  of  Dominant  Functions. — Phylogenetic  Chart  of  the 
Animal  Kingdom. — Index. 

"  It  is  thoroughly  strong  and  able,  and  in  a  perspicuous  way  presents  the  doctrine 
of  evolution  in  its  relation  to  man  in  his  social,  moral,  and  religious  nature.  To  the 
question  'Whence?'  the  author  answers,  as  all  evolutionists  do,  'Protoplasm';  to 
the  question  '  Whither '  his  reply  is,  '  Everything  points  to  a  spiritual  end  in  animal 
evolution.'  The  whole  discussion  is  calm  and  evidently  in  the  interest  of  truth 
rather  than  of  tradition." — The  Outlook, 


tlbe  fldorse  Lectures  for  1894 
THE     RELIGIONS     OF   JAPAN 

FROM  THE  DAWN  OF  HISTORY  TO  THE 
ERA  OF  THE  MEIJI 

BY  WILLIAM   ELLIOT   GRIFFIS,  D.D. 

Formerly  of  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokio;  Author  of  "The  Mikado's  Empire" 
and  "  Corea,  the  Hermit  Nation  " 

1  2mo,  4-57  pp.,  $2.OO 

CONTENTS  : — I.  Primitive  Faith  :  Religion  before  Books. — II.  Shinto  : 
Myths  and  Ritual.— III.  The  Kojiki  and  its  Teachings.— IV.  The 
Chinese  Ethical  System  in  Japan. — V.  Confucianism  in  its  Philosophical 
Form.— VI.  The  Buddhism  of  Northern  Asia.— VII.  Riyobu,  or  Mixed 
Buddhism. — VIII.  Northern  Buddhism  in  its  Doctrinal  Evolutions. — 
IX.  The  Buddhism  of  the  Japanese. — X.  Japanese  Buddhism  in  its 
Missionary  Development. — XI.  Roman  Christianity  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century. — XII.  Two  Centuries  of  Silence. —  Notes,  Authorities,  and 
Illustrations. — Index. 

"The  book  is  excellent  throughout,  and  indispensable  to  the  religious  student." — 
The  A  tlantic  Monthly. 

"  To  any  one  desiring  a  knowledge  of  the  development  and  ethical  status  of  the 
East,  this  book  will  prove  of  the  utmost  assistance,  and  Dr.  Griffis  may  be  thanked 
for  throwing  a  still  greater  charm  about  the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun." 

— The  Churchman, 


TTbe  /Ifcorse  ^Lectures  for  1893 

THE    PLACE   OF   CHRIST   IN    MODERN 
THEOLOGY 

BY  A.  M.  FAIRBAIRN,  M.A.,  D.D. 

Principal  of  Marilfield  College,  Oxford 
8vo,  556  pp.,  $2.5O 

SUMMARY 

Introduction.—  THE   RETURN   TO  CHRIST. 
Book   I.— HISTORICAL  AND  CRITICAL. 

Division  I. — The   Law  of  Development  in  Theology  and  the 

Church. 

Division  II. — Historical  Criticism  and  the  History  of  Christ 
Book  II.— THEOLOGICAL  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE. 

Division  I. — The  New  Testament  Interpretation  of  Christ 

Division  II. — Christ  the  Interpretation  of  God. 

Division  III.— A.  God  as  Interpreted  by  Christ  the  Determinative 

Principle  in  Theology. 
B.  God  as  Interpreted  by  Christ  the  Determinative 

Principle  in  the  Church. 

"  One  of  the  most  valuable  and  comprehensive  contributions  to  theology  that  has 
been  made  during  this  generation." — London  Spectator. 

"  Suggestive,  stimulating,  and  a  harbinger  of  the  future  catholic  theology." 

—Boston  Literary  World. 
"An  important  contribution  to  theological  literature." — London  Times- 


Ufoe  isiy  ^Lectures  for  1897 
THE  BIBLE  AND  ISLAM!  OR, 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  OLD  AND  NEW  TESTAMENTS  ON 
THE  RELIGION  OF  MOHAMMED 

BY  HENRY   PRESERVED   SMITH,  D.D. 
12mo,  319  pp.,  $1.5O 

CONTENTS 

I.  The  Apostle  of  Allah.  VI.  Revelation  and  Prophecy. 

II.  The  Common  Basis  in  Heathenism.  VII.  Sin  and  Salvation. 

III.  The  Koran  Narratives.  VIII.  The  Service  of  God. 

IV.  The  Doctrine  of  God.  IX.  The  Future  Life. 
V.  The  Divine  Government.  X.  Church  and  State. 

"We  should  be  inclined  to  regard  this  volume  as  perhaps  the  very 
best  for  one  who  desired  to  get  a  clear  understanding  of  the  doctrines 
rather  than  of  the  practical  workings  of  Mohammedanism." 

—  The  Outlook. 

"  The  general  reader  will  not  meet  with  a  -more  complete  compendium 
of  the  religious  teachings  of  the  Prophet  of  Arabia." 

— New  York  Commercial  Advertiser. 


tlbe  Els  3Lecture0  for  1801 

ORIENTAL    RELIGIONS    AND 
CHRISTIANITY 

A  COURSE  OF  LECTURES  DELIVERED   BEFORE  THE   STUDENTS  OF 
UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY,  NEW  YORK 

BY    FRANK    F.    ELLINWOOD,    D.D. 

Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 
12mo,  384  pp.,  $1,75 

CONTENTS 

I.  The  Need  of  Understanding  the  False  Religions, 
II.  The   Methods  of  the  Early  Christian  Church  in  Dealing  with 
Heathenism. 

III.  The  Successive  Developments  of  Hinduism. 

IV.  The  Bhagavad  Gita  and  the  New  Testament 
V.  Buddhism  and  Christianity. 

VI.  Mohammedanism  Past  and  Present. 
VII.  The  Traces  of  a  Primitive  Monotheism. 
VIII.  Indirect  Tributes  of  Heathen  Systems  to  the  Doctrines  of  the 

Bible. 

IX.  Ethical  Tendencies  of  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  Philosophies. 
X.  The  Divine  Supremacy  of  the  Christian  Faith. 


THE  ELY  LECTURES 


"  The  special  value  of  this  volume  is  in  its  careful  differentiation  of  the 
schools  of  religionists  in  the  East,  and  the  distinct  points  of  antagonism 
of  the  very  fundamental  ideas  of  Oriental  religions  toward  the  religion 
of  Jesus. " — Outlook. 

"  A  more  instructive  book  has  not  been  issued  for  years." 

— New  York  Observer. 

*'  The  author  has  read  widely,  reflected  carefully,  and  written  ably." 

—  Congregationalist. 

"It  is  a  book  which  we  can  most  heartily  commend  to  every  pastor 
and  to  every  intelligent  student,  of  the  work  which  the  Church  is  called 
to  do  in  the  world."—  The  Missionary. 


^Lectures  for  1890 

THE    EVIDENCE    OF    CHRISTIAN 
EXPERIENCE 

BY  LEWIS   FRENCH   STEARNS,  D.D. 

12mof  473  pp.,  $2.OO 

CONTENTS 

I.  The  Evidences  of  To-day. 
II.  Philosophical  Presuppositions — Theistic. 

III.  Philosophical  Presuppositions— Anthropological. 

IV.  The  Genesis  of  the  Evidence. 
V.  The  Growth  of  the  Evidence. 

VI.  The  Verification  of  the  Evidence. 

VII.  Philosophical  Objections. 

VIII.  Theological  Objections. 

IX.  Relation  to  other  Evidences. 

X.  Relation  to  other  Evidences — Conclusion. 

"  His  presentation  of  the  certainty,  reality,  and  scientific  character  of 
the  facts  in  a  Christian  consciousness  is  very  strong." — The  Lutheran. 

"  An  important  contribution  to  the  library  of  apologetics. " 

— Living  Church. 
"A  good  and  useful  work" — The  Churchman. 

"  The  tone  and  spirit  which  pervade  them  are  worthy  of  the  theme, 
and  the  style  is  excellent.  There  is  nothing  of  either  cant  or  pedantry 
in  the  treatment.  There  is  simplicity,  directness,  and  freshness  of 
manner  which  strongly  win  and  hold  the  reader." — Chicago  Advance. 

CHARLES  SCRffiNER'S  SONS 

J53-J57   FIFTH   AVENUE,   NEW   YORK 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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